Western Canadian Championships Day 1 Finals

22 March 2024 (Winnipeg, MB) - The, “last one fast one!” Is on as the history of the current format of the Western Canadian Championships draws itself to a close after 10 solid years of swimming across Canada’s western provinces. We can look back in appreciation of everything this meet has done for Cascade - and, proudly, look back just as much - in how much we at Cascade have done for this meet! The Westerns record book is replete with the names of Cascade swimmers from over the years since the meet began (long course) in 2015.

The first event up for the night at Day 1 finals was the 200m freestyle and it was a very solid outing for the team with all sorts of personal bests across the boys, the girls and junior/senior categories highlighted by a big win from Rebecca Smith who took gold in the 17&O event in 1:59.93.

The 100m backstroke was next and has been a strong event for Cascade since the day the wheel was invented and this meet has proven to be no different as the team took three of the four championship titles in the event with Ingrid Wilm (1:01.59), Parker Deshayes (58.34) and Cole Pratt (56.94) all claiming gold. Jonah Smith also added a nice little silver lining to the event with a personal best (cracking the minute mark for the first time ever!) of 59.50 for second place finish in the 14-16 event.

The 200m breaststroke was an event full of surprises and excitement, I suppose you could even say it was full of “Shock and awe” after that boys race. Barely scraping by into the boys 14-16 “A” final was Louie Hsiao (8th in and deadlast into the “A” final!) and so in the outside lane away from everyone else (lane 8). But, that mattered not for young Louie, with a personal best of 2:26 coming to the meet he aimed to show the field what he was made of and did so right from the gun blasting out on the first 50 more than a full-second faster than he did in the prelims and not looking back. Despite having to essentially swim the race all alone on his own in the 8th lane Hsiao kept his head about him and continued to chip away at all the 50’s before dropping a big PB of 2:25.26 and taking the bronze medal.

The 4x100m Freestyle relay was the last event of the night with big swims out of both the boys and the girls (and plenty of huge drops from the morning as well!). The Cascade women picked up a silver medal with a fantastic team performance that saw them just on the other side of the win by a couple of tenths in a great battle with the Langley Olympians. Missing out on the gold medal 3:49.04 to 3:49.72.

Cascade Girls

Team “A”lpha Team “B”ravo Team “C”harlie

3:49.72 SILVER 4:02.34 9th 4:09.45 19th

Elleigh 59.15 Mady 60.63 Meredith 64.00

Chloe 59.00 Isabella 60.14 Jenna 60.71

Ingrid 56.71 Lydia 61.54 Abby 62.31

Rebecca 54.86 Brooklyn 60.03 Jolie 62.43

The men’s relay team found themselves in a see-saw battle of epic proportions as the lead went back and forth a few times as the team worked its way back to the top before dropping a crushing final blow with Yuri “The Hammer” Kisil coming down hard on the anchor as the final nail in the coffin. Cascade took gold by a half-second over Langley avenging the defeat of the girls in the previous heat.

Cascade Boys

Team “A”lpha Team “B”ravo

3:30.87 GOLD 3:47.34 19th

Parker 54.77 Jason 57.84

Cole 51.89 Louie 57.65

Broden 54.20 Cuyler 57.45

Yuri 50.01 Jonah 54.40

Team Scores at the end of Day 1

Women

1. LOSC 246.5

2. CASC 153.5

3. CDSC 125.5

4. KISU 82

5. GPP 80

Men

1. LOSC 343

2. CASC 225

3. KAJ 101

4. EKSC 78

5. CREST 67

Combined (Banner Title)

1. LOSC 589.5

2. CASC 378.5

3. KAJ 175

4. CDSC 126.5

5. LASC 122

Other finals results

200 Free

Elleigh Wise 2:06.46 4th PB Jr Olympic Trials Cut

Broden Kelly 1:59.18 11th PB

Jonah Smith 1:59.43 13th PB

Parker Deshayes 2:00.18 15th PB

100 Back

Isabella Korczewski 1:07.60 11th 

Brooklyn Avey 1:08.60 15th 

Broden Kelly 1:03.11 14th PB

200 Breast

Abigail Clark 2:45.71 10th PB

Camryn Dale 2:47.30 13th

Jaxon Kwan 2:31.78 12th PB

800 Free

Kiera Kennedy 9:26.49 6th PB

Elleigh Wise 9:23.63 9th