Seals Surprise in Saskatoon, finish runner up for High Point

The St. James Seals trekked out west on Thursday for the first of two Manitoba Saskatchewan Open Championships (Man/Sask) this season. 6 Seals swimmers made the trip as Logan Bessas, Lucas Bewick, Hayden Grenkow, Maddie Reimer, & Arsenii Varchuk suited up to race, while AGE swimmer Max Wiebe took in the experience & did his best to keep Coach Cam in line on deck.

Bessas started out Man/Sask for the Seals on Thursday by shaking off the 8-hour drive and earning a spot in the 200m Individual Medley final on Saturday evening. Logan’s last-minute qualification at Junior Provincials in February meant that the boys would have a complete relay team at the event, earning him extra swims on both Friday & Saturday evening. He swam to personal bests in 100m Freestyle & 50m Butterfly, completed his first ever 200m Backstroke, & swam 2 fantastic relay splits to help the boys drop their entry times in both events.

Bewick stole the show for the Seals and his age group as he completed an inspiring 17 swims this weekend. Lucas medalled in all 7 of his individual events taking home 4 gold & 3 silver medals. The hardware didn’t stop there as his performances scored him 290 points, earning the 13&U Boys Manitoba High Point Award! During the final night, Lucas competed in his third consecutive provincial relay as he donned another Team Toba cap for the 13&U boys’ team. He swam the breaststroke leg for the team bringing them back to even at the 100m point with Team Sask.

Grenkow followed up his breakout performance at the Shaw Centre last July with another fantastic performance in his new age group at the same pool. Hayden battled his way to best times every time he hit the water this weekend, completing 6 finals, 1 timed final (800m Freestyle), and 2 relays. Hayden showed his versatility as a freestyler as he competed in every race between the 50m & 800m events. Grenkow earned a silver and bronze medal during gutsy performances in the 400m & 800m Freestyle events. It was a pleasure watching our team get behind Hayden, helping will him to podium finishes in those respective events.

Reimer proved that hard work & dedication really does pay off as she moved up an incredible 26 combined places to punch her ticket into finals for all three breaststroke events (50m – 10 places, 100m – 9 places, 200m – 7 places). While moving into two A & one B finals, Maddie swam to impressive personal bests dropping over 7 seconds in the 200m Breaststroke, almost 3 seconds in 100m Breaststroke, & almost 1.5s in 50m Breaststroke. Our captain showed tremendous spirit, leadership skills (& restraint) as the only girl traveling amongst our energetic boys. Her ability to rise to the occasion in a tough 16&O girls category helped the club earn valuable momentum throughout the weekend.

Varchuk solidified his position as a top up and coming sprinter in Manitoba with top showings in the 50m, 100m, & 200m Freestyles, as well as the 50m & 100m Butterfly. Arsenii completed three 50m Freestyles on Friday as he just narrowly missed his first Speedo Western Canadian Championship cuts. He showed a massive amount of heart as he overcame a handful of 4^th & 5^th place finishes to earn a silver medal during his last swim of the meet (200m Freestyle). Varchuk was the club’s second highest point scorer with 114. Arsenii also surprised himself during his first 200m Backstroke, earning a lane in the final on route to another best time.

Wiebe came to Saskatoon with a lot of team spirit and management skill. It’s tough enough to attend a meet you just missed the cut, but add an 8-hour drive to that and most would bow out completely. However, Max cheered his fellow Seals on throughout the entire weekend, wrote splits for Coach Cam (while also waxing him on the chess board), and was an excellent asset to the coaching staff. Highlights of Max’s work include running all over Shaw Centre to ensure our boys didn’t miss a single race, only losing his cap and goggles once, and completing warm up camouflaged in a Saskatoon Goldfins cap all weekend (much to the confusion of both of us & the Saskatoon coaching staff). We look forward to hopefully seeing Max in the correct cap (and goggles) in July when Man/Sask comes to Winnipeg and the Pan Am Pool.

Finally, the 5 swimmers who represented the St. James Seals swam to a runner up finish for Manitoba High Point – Small Club, to the 10 swimmers who represented the University of Manitoba Bison’s Varsity Team. This was an amazing whole team effort as all 5 Seals earned their own spots in individual finals over the weekend. From two proud coaches, we are going to channel this momentum and push forward to the July Man/Sask as we look to add to our talented qualifiers.