Rapids Roll at BC AA Champs!

From June 24th to 26th, 16 Rapids traveled to Kelowna for the BC AA Long Course Championships. " AA's" is the start of the the long course Championship season and what a start our team had! Leading the way for our team and also qualifying for the BC AAA Championships this week in Victoria were Austin Berry and Richard Rackchtis. These two young men stepped up and in a combined 13 events placed no worse than 6th overall in the 11 & under age group!

The team faced some adversity as well with a stomach bug going through the team but the kids were able to battle and perform well despite a few team mates having to miss a day or two of competition in order to regroup and perform when called upon. Mackenzie McCord bounced back from the bug and on Saturday and Sunday won the 15 & over girls 200 BR and have 4 of 5 personal best times. Kate Balen on the very first night was diagnosed with pneumonia but showed her commitment to the team and her desire to compete and instead of going home she stayed at our hotel until she could compete and raced the 100 BR in a new best time and placing 4th overall! Kate also helped our 13-14 girls relay to a 5th place finish.

At AA's the BC 10 & under Swim Stars competition took place as well. This competition show cases the top 10 & under boys and girls in BC. The kids swim the 400 FR, 50 FR, 50 FLY, 100 BK, 100 BR and 200 IM. Awards are handed out based on the total combined time of all 6 events. Matthew Crawford & Jeremy Fung represented the Rapids and were also the only 9 year olds in the competition. Matthew placed 3rd and Jeremy placed 8th overall. Matthew also lowered two of his Rapids 10 & under club records in the 100 Backstroke and 50 Butterfly and set a new record in the 200 IM!

The team performed very well and a special thank you must go out to our amazing chaperones Danica Balen, Wendy Berry, Elaine Bhandal & Pam Gosel. Below are our medal winning performances.

Austin Berry(11) - 1st 50 FR, 200 BR, 2nd 100 FR NEW AAA Time in 50 FR, 100 BK & 200 BR!

Samantha Gosel (13)- 2nd 100 BK 3rd 200 IM

Jessica Jones (12) - 1st 800 FR, 3rd 200 IM

Brian Leung (15) - 1st 1500 FR

Mackenzie McCord (15) - 1st 200 BR, 2nd 100 BR, 3rd 400 IM

Richard Rakchtis (11) - 1st 200 IM, 400 IM & 400 FR, 2nd 200 BK, 3rd 100 BK & 200 BR NEW AAA times in 100 BK & 200 BK

Alex Tsui (16) - 1st 200 IM

Tony Zeng (14) - 3rd 1500 FR & 400 IM

Alex Zhang (15) - 1st 400 FR & 200 BK, 2nd 200 IM, 100 FR & 400 IM

Selina Zhou (12) - 2nd 100 FLY

12 & Boys 200 FR Relay - 2nd - Matthew, Jeremy, Richard, Austin

15 & Over Boys 200 FR Relay - 1st - Alex T, Alex Z, Brian, Tony