Swimming toward regional championships

County swimmers joined their Belleville Youth Swim Team peers to kick off 2015 with strong results at their meet and landing themselves in an all-time high position.

“The swimmers are very committed and their hard work has paid off huge,” said head coach Brandon Oates.

The BYST had 65 members drop a combined 1800 seconds (30 minutes) of time at their meet in Belleville and now the team has more thanb 30 regional qualifiers. Belleville is hosting the 2015 Eastern Ontario Regional Championships Jan. 30 to Feb. 1 in the Templeman Menninga Aquatic Centre at the Quinte Sports and Wellness Centre.

In addition to having a record number of regional qualifiers, Noah Brooks and Thomas Butler will be joining Mackenzie Latter at Ontario Festivals, and the team also has the most  provincial and age group national qualifiers in team history.  To top it off, Melissa Dingle qualified for Senior Nationals in the 50m backstroke at 29.43.

“The first time ever for a BYST swimmer to achieve such a feat,” said Oates. “She plans to compete at the 2015 Pan Am Trials this April amongst the best swimmers in the country.”

He notes it is likely multiple athletes will be representing Belleville at the 2016 Olympic Trials.

Gold medal winners were: Thomas Butler, Katelyn Cairns, Stephanie Cairns, Victor Coutu, Melissa Dingle, Tess Friar, Owen Googe, Rafik Jiwa, Mackenzie Latter, Maddie McGillen, Joseph Rittenhouse, Aleisha Rose, Nate Shiers-Redhead and last, but not least Lauren Taylor, who placed first in every event she raced.

More medal winners were: Ashley Allaire, Katherine Beaumont, Noah Brooks, Natalie Butler, Giri Chandran, Lily Charles, Charlotte Coutu, Gautham Krishna, Jayden MacDonald, Rylan Miller, Sadie Morphet, Lara Noronha, Isaac Osbourne, Abby Szuch and Gracey Vanberkel.

Athletes with 100 percent best times were: Katherine Beaumont, Nikki Cairns, Charlotte Coutu, Victor Coutu, Isabella Isbester, Dallas Ketcheson, Paige Kovacs, Gautham Krishna, Josh Lamoureux, Paige Launderville, Jacqui Lichty, Quintin Lichty, Olivia Morphet, Ella O’Neill, Elizabeth Peterson, Abby Szuch, Eva Tromp and Gracey Vanberkel.

“There were many excellent BYST performances,” said Oates from: Sruthi Amalan, Madalyn Andrus, Cara Arnold, Janna Arnold, Tyler Banez, Craig Bekker, Jackson Bonn, Nick Cinnamon, Zoe Desjardins, Riley Donia, Olivia Goyer, Henryk Luczynski, Brendan MacQuarrie, Leah McGillen, Jenna O’Neill, Leah Oster, Gwen Randall, Lily Randall, Tsering Rongstang, Amy Sommerville, Erin Sommerville, Olivia Widdows, Emeline Williams and Christina Zhang.

Eastern Ontario Regional Short Course Championships will see the best 20 teams east of the GTA compete with 500 athletes Jan. 30 to Feb. 1.  For more information about the Belleville Youth Swim Team,  visit their website at www.byst.ca