Dozens of members of the Cochrane Piranhas Summer Swim Club showed the benefits of home-pool advantage on July 15, registering several gold-medal finishes and podium-placements – with a pair of new club records to boot.
According to meet manager Lisa Preston, 66 swimmers from the Piranhas were in action at last Saturday's competition. In total, she said 238 swimmers from throughout Alberta were competing.
A highlight was the performance of 14-year-old Caebri Smith, who broke a Piranhas club record by finishing his 1,500-metre (m) race in 19:55.37. According to coach Kate Johnson, Smith smashed the Piranhas' old record in that event – which Smith, in fact, set himself earlier this season – by more than 40 seconds.
“His previous time was 20:40.96 [so] he came in under 20 minutes, which is just amazing for a 1,500,” said Johnson, noting Smith turns 15 later this summer.
Considering his strong performances in the pool this summer, Johnson said it appears the teenager has found his niche as a long-distance specialist.
“If you look at his time, he’s a phenomenal freestyle swimmer and he’s definitely found his place in these longer distances,” she said. “It really takes a race-focus type of swimmer. You have all of those laps to do, and he really settles in for those longer distances.
“[His coaches] will tell you, he just has this innate ability to hold his lap times until he really needs to speed up in those last 150 metres. He just has an incredible amount of energy to kick for the last [three lengths], and it’s an amazing thing to watch.”
While Smith's performance in the 1,500 m was an obvious highlight, Johnson said another new club record was set by the Piranhas' 200-m freestyle relay team for boys 18 and older. The fast foursome, which included Oliver Johnson, Bryson Hammer, Max Kruger, and Smith, generated a time of 1:52.06. The old record in that event was 2:00.57, according to Johnson.
Smith also broke an 11-year-old club record by finishing his 200-m boys' freestyle with a time of 2:16.50, replacing a Piranhas record set by Erik Nusl back in 2012.
Johnson said it was a great weekend overall, and the meet went off without a hitch.
“Our meet manager Lisa Preston did an incredible job making sure things ran smoothly,” she said.
In addition to Preston and the athletes, Johnson wanted to praise the Piranhas' sponsors whose support helped make the meet a reality. Those financial backers included Spacelabs Healthcare, Inter pipeline, Graymont, Cochrane Sport Physio, and Ultrasound Canada.
Next up for the Piranhas is a return to the Seton YMCA in Calgary on July 22 to compete in a meet put on by the Swordfish swim club.
Johnson said the competition is truly heating up for the Piranhas as they prepare for regionals, which is followed by provincials in August.
“The swimmers are really looking at beginning to choose the races they want to swim at regionals,” she said. “Rather than like the beginning of the season when the coaches want them to [race in every event they can], now they’re really beginning to narrow down their four individual events and look at the relay teams they’ll be swimming in for regionals.
“It’s about all those fine details that begin to take off those hundredths of a second that make the difference from first place to third place. In regionals, you need to place in those top two to go to provincials in that race.”
For more info on the Cochrane Piranhas, visit cochranepiranhas.ca
