November KAJ Fall Classic Highlights (2024/2025)
Last weekend (Nov. 15-17), a team of 9 Orca swimmers competed at the KAJ Fall Classic in Kelowna. Our small team acquitted themselves excellently, both in and out of the pool as they raced hard and encouraged each other throughout the weekend. As a team, these 9 swimmers walked away with personal bests in 57 out of 62 races, which is incredible! Here are some of the many highlights:
Emily: Emily swam 6 individual races and 2 relays over the weekend, coming away with 100% best times. In her 200 Breaststroke, she dropped a massive 7 seconds to earn herself a 3rd place finish in the 13/14 category, and 2nd among 13-year-olds in the event. Amazing work Emily!
Addison: In her regional meet debut, and as the youngest member of our squad, Addison improved all her times by massive margins and even competed in two relay events with her teammates. Among her 6 individual races was the 50 Backstroke, where she improved her previous best time (set only two weeks prior) by over 5.5 seconds. So impressive Addison!
Ainsley: Ainsley had a fantastic meet, swimming to personal best times in almost all her events and joining the older relay team in securing first place for Orca in the 4x50 Freestyle relay. In her last swim of the weekend, Ainsley improved her 50 Backstroke by almost 2.5 seconds, lowering her personal best to a speedy 35.49 and placing first in her age group. Way to swim Ainsley!
Madeleine: Madeleine also swam to 100% best times, with two of the largest drops coming out of her 200 Breaststroke and 100 Fly on the last day. Maddie gives it her all every time she races, and that was super evident in her 8 second time improvement in the always challenging 100 Fly. Super awesome Maddie!
Bea: Bea’s commitment to improving her freestyle technique in practice has been paying off and was evident in her individual 400 Freestyle this weekend, where she dropped 17 seconds to swim a 5:28.20. It also helped her do an excellent job in her impressive anchoring legs of the 4x50 and 4x200 Freestyle relays. Keep up the great work Bea!
Isla: Isla has been working hard towards her goal of reaching the Divisional qualifying times, and all the work paid off! Despite dropping almost 6 seconds in her 50 Fly and 22 seconds in her 400 Freestyle, it was the 50 Breaststroke where her 2.23 second improvement earned Isla her first 12&U divisional time. She barely missed multiple other times, so when she isn’t making her teammates laugh, she will be working hard towards those before the meet next month in Kamloops. Congratulations Isla!
Alicia: Joining several of her teammates with 100% personal bests, Ali improved 5 of her swims by 5+ seconds, including a whopping 10.78 second improvement in her 200 Breaststroke, a time from only one month previous. Ali made each of her races count and played a big role in all three relays with her teammates. Great swimming Alicia!
Adleigh: While Adleigh helped her teammates to a first-place finish in a very quick 4x50 Freestyle relay, she also swam several personal bests and highlighted the weekend with a gutsy 100 Butterfly finish to secure a 4 second drop and a time of 1:25.02. Well done Adleigh!
Nicolas: While competing in his first swim meet in over a year could have been nerve wracking, Nicolas stepped up to the challenge with enthusiasm and determination, blowing away all his old best-times by between 12 and 55 seconds each. Exceeding all expectations, Nicolas put the long hours of hard work at the pool to use and wrapped up the weekend with an incredibly well paced and technical 200 Breaststroke, where he lowered his personal best by 34.38 seconds to come in at a 3:31.62. What an amazing way to get back into racing Nicolas!
Thank-you to all the parents and the community who support these swimmers on a regular basis as they work hard towards their goals! We are consistently impressed by the dedication and resilience of our swimmers in all groups and look forward to watching that effort pay off in more competitions throughout the season!
Coach Janae
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