Great Finish to the Club Season at Nationals in Montreal

The club season ended this past weekend witht the conclusion of Age Group Nationals in Montreal.  The meet followed the Senior National Championships the week before and in all 16 AMAC swimmers competed with great success in one or both of the meets. 

We had 5 swimmers at Senior Nationals from July 8-11 and all swam lifetime bests in the trials for the World Championships.  The meet was outside in the beautiful facility at Parc Jean-Drapeau which has two 50m pools and a 25m diving tank.  We had sun, rain and wind over the four days and some great racing.

Tianna Rissling had our top individual performance with a 10th place in the 50 Breast breaking the Alberta Provincial record for 15-16 girls with her 35.58.  She also placed in the 200 Breast with a 2:34.94 for 13th place.  Tianna also set a new club record in the 200 fly with a best time of 2:22.51.

Elizabeth Sissons posted 2 best times at her first senior nationals with improvements in the 50 Free and 50 Fly to go with good swims in the 50 & 100 Breast and 4x100 Free relay.

Kristyn Flanagan swam her lifetime best in the 50 Fly lowereing her open club record to 28.84 and her best senior national placing of 34th.  She also had a best time in the 200 free and on the 4 x 100 free realy.

Jessica Wong had a best times in the 50 Fly setting a new 13-14 club record of 29.57.  Bailey Sloan, in her first Senior Nationals had a best time in the 50 Free and posted good swims in the 4 x 100 & 4 x 200 Free Relays. 

Overall our girls set 1 Alberta Provincial Record, 9 Individual Club Records, 2 Relay Club Records and 9 lifetime bests.

Age Group Nationals (18 & under) began 4 days after the Senior Meet and with Kristyn & Liz heading home we added 11 more swimmers for our second week in Montreal.  After a couple days of sightseeeing we were ready to race from the 16-19th.

The girls that had been at Senior Nationals were well aclimatized to the outside conditions and ready to go.  We started of with 4 finalists on day 1 highlighted by Jessica Wong winning bronze in the 50 Back.  Jessica led the first 35 metres of the race by half a body lengths before hitting the lane rope on her right  which sent her off to hit the lane rope on her left.  Despite swimming about 51.5 metres Jessica just missed her own provincial record and had our first medal of the meet with a 31.50.  Amanda Andrew, in her first national level meet raced to 4th in the 12 & under 50 back with a best time of 33.