Western Canadian Championships Day 2 Finals
23 March 2024 (The corner of Portage & Main, MB) - The second day of the Western Canadian Championships proved just as exciting as the first with all sorts of action across the pool including a set of relays that left your heart on the floor with all the excitement!
First up on the night, the 100m freestyle, was an exciting event as it always is - up and down the pool as fast as you can!
Our girls in the “A” finals were Elleigh Wise and Rebecca Smith. Rebecca, the winner of the 200 last night, took this one in 56.02 for the win it the first of a number of events for her this night. Wise was 6th in a new lifetime best, and therefore club record, of 59.00.
Parker Deshayes got himself off to a good start in the 100m freestyle in his first event of a long night of fast racing. Into the final at the bottom of the pack he managed to swim his way up with a rocket of a first 50 out first in 25.70 before settling to a lifetime best of 53.36 and bronze.
The girls 50m backstroke was one of those events that was seemingly a forgone conclusion before it even got going as the top seed was none other than Ingrid Wilm, bronze medalist from the recent world championships, who won in 28.18.
Our first double podium finish of the weekend, maybe (I think), came in the men’s 50m backstroke. With three swimmers in the “A” final odds were ever in our favour to get at least one medal, but two? Doesn’t happen that often! But, inspired perhaps by a beautiful rendition of Lady Gaga’s “poker face”by Eric Cartman - Jonah Smith, Parker Deshayes and Cole Pratt all put up solid swims with Cole taking gold in 26.24 and Parker grabbing bronze in 26.93.
The girls 100m breaststroke was a big race for Cascade’s Abigail Clark who has been on a tare all season long had a fantastic swim for the Championship title up against some stiff competition from our Northern neighbours in Edmonton. 33.58 on the 1st 50 compared to her 34.29 (7/10ths!) split in the morning and a 1:12.48 final time for a new lifetime best and gold medal.
It was another double-podium finish in the 50m butterfly for Cascade as two Cascade women not only shared podium finishes but one of them shared the gold medal in a tie! Rebecca Smith took bronze in 27.54 while Ingrid Wilm, now back-to-back 50m butterfly Western Canadian Champion, tied for gold in 27.34 with Matea Gigovic from KSC.
Big Thomas Pratsch was the top-seed in the 50m butterfly by 1/100th of a second after this morning’s prelims in 25.62. It was a lifetime best time for our 6 foot 9 giant from Germany and at night he had his hands full as there was a big target on his back in the middle of the pool. In a race decided by the slimmest of margins Thomas took silver in a new PB of 25.34 just 3/100ths shy of the championship title.
The 4x200m freestyle relays capped the night off in dramatic fashion just as they did at the end of night one with Cascade in, then out, then in again, then far out before finally right back in the mix for medals in a race that was all over the map in the hunt for hardware.
The girls saw Cascade pitted once again the might LOSC (Langley & Abbotsford Olympians) who they went head-to-head with the night before just losing out at the touch in the 4x1. Langley was super strong and on pace for the meet record through about 700 metres before falling just short at the end while Cascade worked their way through the field throughout the race before closing hard on the leaders at the end. It was a great effort all around with plenty of “best ever” legs from all the Cascade teams: Alpha, Bravo and Charlie!
Cascade Girls
CASC “A” CASC “B” CASC “C”
8:28.53 SILVER 8:52.13 11th 8:58.56 13th
Layla 2:12.19 Keira 2:13.28 Madilyn 2:15.29
Elleigh 2:10.70 Isabella 2:12.02 Jolie 2:18.41
Ingrid 2:04.18 Lydia 2:14.76 Chloe 2:12.31
Rebecca 2:01.46 Jenna 2:12.06 Brooklyn 2:12.55
The men’s team was a mix of youngsters and veterans up against some strong western teams like Langley, Keyano and Kelowna. Like the girls Cascade sat in the mix with a tonne of other teams with a big rally at the end to run through a bunch of teams before finally landing in bronze.
Cascade Boys
CASC “A”
7:57.75 BRONZE
Broden 2:01.43
Parker 2:02.03
Jonah 2:01.57
Cole 1:52.72
Team Scores at the end of Day 2
Women
1. LOSC 549.5
2. CASC 408
3. CDSC 263.5
4. KISU 260
5. KAJ 215
Men
1. LOSC 921
2. CASC 463
3. EKSC 282
4. KAJ 245
5. GPP 170
Combined (Banner Title Race)
1. LOSC 1,470.5
2. CASC 871
3. KAJ 460
4. EKSC 390
5. KISU 345
Other finals results
100 Free
Elleigh Wise 59.00 6th PB CLUB RECORD
Brooklyn Avey 1:00.36 12th
Chloe Baker 1:00.49 13th
Broden Kelly 54.08 5th PB
Jonah Smith 55.18 11th
50 Back
Jonah Smith 27.89 6th PB
100 Breast
Camryn Dale 1:18.69 16th
Louie Hisao 1:06.89 5th PB
Jaxon Kwan 1:08.55 8th
Ben Weir 1:09.85 13th
50 Fly
Brooklyn Avey 29.11 14th PB
Ricardo Parra Hernandez 26.34 8th (Under old PB and prelims PB 26.14)
