Vernon Regional Meet Recap - April 2025
Vernon April Swim Meet Recap:
A few weeks ago, Orca had 7 swimmers head to Vernon to compete in their annual April Nolan’s Pharmasave Invitational. Despite being the first event since Divisionals, and not too far removed from Spring Break, our small group of Orca members had a great showing with some fast racing! Emotions and anxieties were naturally high in their return to racing, but each member of the group showed resiliency and strength throughout the weekend, as well as a great team attitude cheering each other on.
Check out a couple highlights for each of our swimmers below, including two first time Regional swimmers (Caelan and Yaniv).
Caelan – In his first ever Regional level meet (after reaching his Sub 4:00 qualifying time in his 200 IM), Caelan swam extremely well in his 11&U category, even coming away with two 2nd place and one 3rd place finishes! Caelan swam the 100 and 200 Free, the 100 Breaststroke, and the 200 Backstroke for the first time ever, and paced all three exceptionally well! As a coach, one highlight for me was watching him dive in for his 50 Freestyle, and although he went too deep and came up several body-lengths behind the rest of the field, Caelan didn’t back down, sprinting his way up to and past everyone else to win his heat in a speedy 39.87. Super impressive Caelan!
Yaniv – As our other first time Regional swimmer, Yaniv also impressed, dropping a whopping 29 seconds off of his qualifying 200 IM time in his first race! Yaniv got best times in all of his events and raced three new events as well. One really cool event that Vernon hosts each year is a “Dash for Cash”, where they take the top 4 girls and top 4 boys from each age category and have them race, eliminator style, for cash. Although Yaniv was eliminated first, even qualifying for the event (with a 36.00 time for his 50 Free) in his first meet was beyond impressive! Well done, Yaniv!
Emily – After being sick over the Divisional weekend in February, Emily was ready and excited to give it her all and see all the hard work at practice pay off. Emily finished with 5 new best times, including in the 100 Breaststroke where she dropped her time by almost 3 full seconds on her way to a 1:26.75 and a 3rd place finish. Keep it up Emily!
Addison – Achieving best times in 4/5 of her races, our youngest attendee Addison took off an accumulative 38 seconds across her events, including 9 in her 100 Freestyle, touching the wall in 1:35.92. Addison also overcame the nerves to break the elusive 40 second barrier in the 50 Freestyle for the first time, which is always super exciting! Really proud of you, kiddo!
Ainsley – Although she added a smidgen of time in two of her favourite races (50 Free and 50 Back), Ainsley pulled out two big best times in both the 50 Fly and 100 Fly, breaking 37 and 1:29, respectively. Her willingness to do the tough races with a smile on her face is always so appreciated by us coaches. Way to go Ainsley!
Bea – Swimming three 50s, all while wearing a training suit instead of a race suit, Bea still came away with a best time in her 50 Freestyle, dropping oh-so-close to that magic 30 second barrier that she has been chasing. One thing I really appreciated about Bea this weekend is that, despite being under the weather, she took her role as a team leader very seriously and was a constant presence cheering on her teammates and encouraging the young Orcas who needed some wise words. Possibly my favourite moment from the weekend was looking over to see Bea giving a pep-talk to Yaniv and helping him with his swim cap as he prepared for the Dash-for-Cash event. Thanks for being your awesome self, Bea!
Kendra – While she continued her streak of having a cold at a swim meet, Kendra didn’t let it slow her down! Improving her previous SC best times in 6 of the 7 races she did, Kendra proved that you can’t ever underestimate her! My personal favourites were watching her swim no-holds-barred for both her 50 and 100 Freestyle, sprinting out and not looking back until she hit the wall with massive improvements and brand new Divisional times in each. Can’t wait to see more of that at the next one! Way to race, Kendra!
Next up: the Kelowna May LC meet, coming up this weekend, May 9-11.
Thanks for reading and cheering on our Orcas, wherever they’re racing!
Coach Janae