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Congratulations to everyone who participated in our Time Trial on April 17! Swimmers from all groups took part, with Monsoon, Typhoon and Pursuit swimmers racing three events, while Swim Academy swimmers raced one event during their practice time! 

We had a number of Swim Academy swimmers participate in their first competition! Congratulations to Brooklyn G, Irene H, Olivia L, Lucas S, Bowen T, Catherine Y and Ian Z who all raced the 100m Freestyle as their first time off the blocks with our team! Leo O also had his first race, completing the 200m Individual Medley! Great to see so many new faces doing a great job finishing longer races to gain experience at meets!

Swim Academy 1 did a tremendous job of their 100m Freestyles! New best times for Cyrus B, James C, Max H, Ethan J, Alvin L, Morgan M, Ella N, Sam S and Wyatt W! A great sign for our upcoming Development Meet on April 27! 

Swim Academy 2 was focusing on the 200m Individual Medley and also did a fantastic job! Big best times for Ramona B, Sienna EW and Roniya M! Strong swims setting up for next weekend by Keon T and Amelia W! And we have a new LMR Meet Qualifier with Lydia L racing under the 4 minute mark with a time of 3:58.61! 

Monsoon swimmers did a great job racing three events through the session, with everyone first focusing on their 200m Individual Medley and then two other races. Mimu had a huge drop in her 200m IM! Chelsea was great in her 200m IM as well and lowered her 50m Freestyle to within a second of the Divisional time standard! Holly made improvements in both her 200m IM and 50m Breaststroke! Lexie had a very strong 200m Backstroke after a best in the 50m Backstroke! 

Swimmers in Typhoon and Pursuit also focused on the 200m Individual Medley to start followed by some speed in a 50 and then trying to carry that speed into a 100m or 200m event. This was our first racing in weeks and the main focus was to get everyone prepared for our upcoming long course meets. We had a few swimmers have some big accomplishments, congratulations to the following: Tom had a great meet, racing to new Divisional times in all three of his races - 200m Individual Medley, 50m Butterfly and 100m Butterfly! Emma raced to a new Divisional standard in the 200m Individual Medley! Lauryn had a big drop in her 200m IM! Cameron was all best times with aggressive racing in the 200m IM, 50m Freestyle and 100m Freestyle! Pippa tried a new race strategy in her 200m Backstroke and did it really well to race to a best time! Nicolas lowered his already fast 200m IM and 100m Freestyle events, while just missing all best times in the 50m Freestyle! Dottie swam a great 200m Butterfly and made big drops in her 50m Butterfly and 200m IM as well! Maddie took off a lot of time in her 200m IM! Kinsey keeps getting closer to a 29 in the 50m Freestyle, now just .33 away! Bianca just missed all bests and had a lot of speed in her backstroke to lower her 50m Backstroke and 200m IM! Bayden set a best time in the 50m Breaststroke holding his speed very well and accelerating through his finish! Nikkie had a great 200m IM taking off a ton of time! Mia got under 3 minutes for the first time in 200m IM and lowered her 100m Freestyle with a strong second half!

At this time trial everyone did a great job of just getting back into racing after a tough month of training, we are really looking forward to results over the next few weekends! 

100% Best Times 
Cyrus B, Ramona B, Cameron C, James C, Sienna EW, Brooklyn G, Irene H, Max H, Tom J, Ethan J, Lydia L, Alvin L, Olivia L, Roniya M, Morgan M, Ella N, Leo O, Dottie R, Lucas S, Sam S, Bowen T, Wyatt W, Catherine Y, Ian Z

New Time Standards 

LMR (Lower Mainland Region) Meets
Lydia Lan - 200m Individual Medley

SwimBC Divisionals
Tom Jiao - 200m Individual Medley, 50m Butterfly, 100m Butterfly
Emma Johnston - 200m Individual Medley

 ​​​​​​​  More pictures on our photo page

The swimmers did a lot of work in the pool, over 80,000 yards over the nine days of training! The training included a lot of challenging aerobic capacity sets mixed with technique work focused on underwaters and breakouts. The swimmers managed through a four hour practice (101-120x100s for the workout), over distance training of their number one stroke and a lot of IM work. We had a fun mini meet where Brad’s team of Ava, Keira, Tom, Burton, Nic, Maddie and Kinsey narrowly beat Matt’s team of Ethan, Siena, Nadia, Brooke, Emma, Dottie and himself. A lot of really impressive performances throughout the camp from every swimmer! They surprised themselves sometimes with what they could accomplish while under a lot of work. 

We had a lot of fun throughout the camp as well! Dryland is a lot better on beaches with frisbee games after some medicine ball work. We visited Huntington Beach, Coronado Beach and had a few trips to Oceanside Beach. Had a really fun last day surfing at Pacific Beach in San Diego! We made it to a Clippers game and spent a decent amount of time in LA traffic. It was all very fun though as the team really bonded and was such a fun group throughout the trip! So many funny moments and lasting memories for everyone who attended. 

A huge thank you to our amazing chaperone Randa! She overfed the swimmers with great meals, kept everyone on task and was up for any of our adventures during the trip! It also made a huge difference to have Matt coaching at the camp. He keeps everyone motivated and focused in and out of the pool!

We hosted our second Development Meet of the season on Sunday with 29 Hurricanes competing in 3 individual events and 1 relay each! The team did a great job racing in all their events, producing some awesome results and having a lot of fun! This was a fantastic opportunity to race swimmers from other teams, and our swimmers did an excellent job!

Swim Academy 1 did a great job racing in the 50m Freestyle, 50m Breaststroke, and 50m Backstroke individual events and the 4x50m Freestyle Relay! Our hard work on kick and body position really paid off in all our swims! Going forward, we will focus on our stroke and turn rhythm and timing so we can be off the walls quickly!

Swim Academy 2 did an excellent job honing their skills in the 100 m and 200m Individual Medley races, getting a chance to race all 4 strokes in the same race. Big congratulations to Victoria for breaking 4 minutes and achieving her LMR time in the 200m IM! Swimmers in Swim Academy 2 also raced 50m and 100m races, some of them racing 100m races for the very first time, and the 4x50m Freestyle Relay! Swimmers showed awesome improvements, and everyone achieved at least one best time! Going forward, Swim Academy 2 will focus on improving stroke efficiency and honing turn technique!

Monsoon swimmers had the opportunity to race a variety of different races on Sunday and did so to great success! Maelie showed huge improvement in her Butterfly and Freestyle, breaking 3 minutes for the first time in 200m Freestyle and 40 seconds for the first time in 50m Butterfly! Ryan displayed huge improvements in his Breaststroke, helping him to swim fast in his 200m IM and 100m Breaststroke! Holly did a great job in her Butterfly and Backstroke swimming, showing off the huge improvements she has made it training! Freya did an excellent job in her 200m IM, pacing the race really well and showing off some great technique! Lexie did an excellent job in her 200m Freestyle, showing huge improvements in her stroke! Evan showed off the improvements he has made in his Butterfly and Backstroke, helping him to best times in his 200m IM, 50m Backstroke, and 50m Butterfly!

Thanks to all the parents and swimmers who volunteered to help run the meet!

​​​​​​​100% Best Times
Noah H, Victoria H, Chad L, Audrey M, Morgan M, Lexie P, Sam S, Liam S, Amelia W, Bradley W, Lily Z, Evan Z

New Time Standards
Lower Mainland Meet Qualification
Victoria Ho   200m Individual Medley

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Our team had a great showing at Provincials! Our swimmers raced to 90% best long course times at the meet, really fast swimming for one of our first long course meets of the year! The first day was a little tough for most swimmers, as the first day of these meets often are. We had an incredible day two with five out of our six swims qualifying for finals! Day three we had great races getting close to medals and day four we had a huge swim by Burton to win Gold in the 50m Breaststroke with a very fast time of 30.12! 

Lauryn had a great start to the meet, putting together a very fast 100m Backstroke to qualify for finals in her first Provincials in the 13-14 age group! She raced to all bests throughout the meet!

Brooke had a tough go as she was very sick leading into the meet and even missing her first two events. She came into the meet on Friday and pushed through a 50m Butterfly to qualify for finals and just missed a medal finishing 4th overall .07 off of her best time! 

Emma was racing at her first Provincials and raced to all best times in her 100m Freestyle and relay lead-off swims! 

Burton came on strong as the meet progressed, racing in the 50m Butterfly, 100m Breaststroke and 50m Breaststroke finals! His 50m Butterfly was a huge drop and just missed his Canadian Trials time to finish 5th! A best time in his 100m Breaststroke finished 4th and qualified him to race the event at Canadian Trials in June! Burton raced to a best in the morning to lead the way in the 50m Breaststroke and then had a huge swim dropping another .4 and finishing with a gold medal in finals! 

Nicolas was very impressive throughout the meet, also his first Provincials. He was very busy, racing in finals every session across six freestyle and backstroke events! Nicolas did a great job long course without much past experience and set himself up very well for a huge meet at summer Provincials! 

Dottie qualified in the 200m Backstroke at Divisionals for her first Provincials, she did a great job racing to a big best long course time in the morning and then improving the time in finals! She also had a great relay swim in our 4x200m Freestyle Relay! 

Kinsey also raced to all best times, lowering her long course times in all three breaststroke events and a big drop leading off our 4x100m Freestyle Relay! 

It was a great experience for the team, four day meets are hard to manage and we did a very good job of racing really well throughout the meet. The meet will set us up well for a very exciting long course season after spring break! 

Finalists 
Lauryn - 100m Backstroke 
Brooke - 50m Butterfly
Burton - 50m Butterfly, 100m Breaststroke, 50m Breaststroke Gold Medal!
Nicolas - 50m Freestyle, 100m Backstroke, 200m Freestyle, 100m Freestyle, 50m Backstroke, 200m Backstroke
Dottie - 200m Backstroke

100% Best Times
Lauryn B, Emma J, Nicolas RT, Dottie R, Kinsey R

New Team Records 

Boys 15-17 and Open 
30.12 - 50m Breaststroke - Burton Li (was Burton Li 30.70 2024)
1:07.42 - 100m Breaststroke - Burton Li (was Burton Li 1:07.74 2024)

New Time Standards

Canadian Swimming Trials 
Burton Li   100m Breaststroke   

Canadian Open 
Burton Li   50m Breaststroke

Canadian SC Championships 
Burton Li   50m Breaststroke

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We hosted a Time Trial for swimmers to race events while they were prepared for Divisionals with great results! 
A lot of great races, including: A new Provincial time in the 50m Freestyle for Brooke! A new Divisional time in the 200m Breaststroke for Pippa! Holly had a big 100m Freestyle! Lexie was very fast in both of her races! Chelsea is closing in on Divisional time standards in mulitple events! Bianca raced to all bests! Nikki was all bests as well! Ryan had a fast 50m Backstroke! Tom had a very strong 200m Freestyle! Emma lowered her best 50m Freestyle time! Lauryn keeps lowering her 50m Butterfly time! Freya was set a new time in her 50m Freestyle! Emme was her best 50m Breaststroke! Maddie set a new best in the 50m Butterfly! Mia lowered both of her times! Kinsey is closing in on a 29 in her 50m Freestyle! Lily had a big best season swim in the 50m Breaststroke! Noah was a big best in his 50m Breaststroke and season best in his 50m Freestyle! 

100% Best Times
Tom J, Brooke J, Chelsea L, Lexie P, Bianca R, Nikki T, Mia Z

New Time Standards

SwimBC Divisional Championships
Pippa McMillan   200m Breaststroke   

SwimBC Provincial Championships
Brooke Johannson   50m Freestyle

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We hosted a Time Trial for swimmers to race events while they were prepared for Divisionals with great results! 
A lot of great races, including: A new Provincial time in the 50m Freestyle for Brooke! A new Divisional time in the 200m Breaststroke for Pippa! Holly had a big 100m Freestyle! Lexie was very fast in both of her races! Chelsea is closing in on Divisional time standards in mulitple events! Bianca raced to all bests! Nikki was all bests as well! Ryan had a fast 50m Backstroke! Tom had a very strong 200m Freestyle! Emma lowered her best 50m Freestyle time! Lauryn keeps lowering her 50m Butterfly time! Freya was set a new time in her 50m Freestyle! Emme was her best 50m Breaststroke! Maddie set a new best in the 50m Butterfly! Mia lowered both of her times! Kinsey is closing in on a 29 in her 50m Freestyle! Lily had a big best season swim in the 50m Breaststroke! Noah was a big best in his 50m Breaststroke and season best in his 50m Freestyle! 

100% Best Times
Tom J, Brooke J, Chelsea L, Lexie P, Bianca R, Nikki T, Mia Z

New Time Standards

SwimBC Divisional Championships
Pippa McMillan   200m Breaststroke   

SwimBC Provincial Championships
Brooke Johannson   50m Freestyle

​​​​​​​  More pictures on our photo page

Winter Divisionals was another exciting meet for our team as we had 18 swimmers compete throughout the weekend! Everyone had some great moments and as always, our swimmers stepped up for our relays each night. These heats and finals performance meets are such a great learning opportunity for our young swimmers. The meet was a great experience that continued to move our team forward as we will aim to build on the results at Provincials in two weeks and then at our next round of performance meets in the summer.

Our team captains led the way at this swim meet, displaying their experience and commitment as they raced to incredible results throughout the meet! Brooke destroyed her 200m Individual Medley best time to qualify for Provincials in the event for the first time while winning the race! Brooke continued racing at a high level throughout the meet, lowering her best times in three freestyle events as well as her best event that she was racing exhibition, the 100m Butterfly! Kinsey made an incredible jump in her 50m Breaststroke that has been a long time coming, dropping a full second to race to her Provincial time and a silver medal! Kinsey followed it up with a bronze medal and new Provincial time in the 100m Breaststroke! She then raced to big best times and new Divisional standards in her 400m Individual Medley and 100m Butterfly! The captains showed their work across all the strokes with big drops in across all of their events throughout the weekend. Both Brooke and Kinsey improved from heats to finals every day, making the necessary adjustments to improve their results. These are incredible traits for every swimmer to have and it has taken a lot of dedication for them to get to this point. They both have stayed committed when they weren’t getting the outcomes they were hoping for in different parts of their swimming careers. It’s never a smooth progression which makes it so rewarding to see both of them achieve the results that they very much deserved!

Pippa had a tremendous meet with an event line up that no one else would have been excited about. Pippa raced the maximum nine events including an 800m Freestyle, both 400m events and four 200m events throughout the weekend! She raced to huge drops in her 200m Individual Medley, 400m Freestyle and 200m Butterfly which led to a bronze medal in the event! Pippa came very close to Provincial times in multiple events, it is always hard to get that first break through and she put herself in a tremendous position for her next two Divisional/Provincials in her age group. After her grueling weekend with some tough back to back events, it was amazing to see her finish with a best time in the 100m Butterfly final to cap off an incredible meet!

Nicolas’s racing skill was on display all weekend as he pushed through to add four more events to his Provincial schedule! Nic had an incredible race in the 50m Freestyle, following a big drop in prelims for the Provincial time, he improved his time again to out touch a swimmer for gold in the final! Nic had his head down for the last 15m of his race to make sure he got his hand on the wall first! He also added Provincial times in the 200m Backstroke, 100m Butterfly and 200m Individual Medley!

Dottie also had a busy schedule with the full nine events, making big improvements in her 400m Freestyle and all three backstroke events! Dottie’s 200m Backstroke was incredible as she took off four seconds in prelims and then improved every 50m split in her final racing to her first ever Provincial time standard and a gold medal!

Lauryn put together a great 100m Freestyle, taking the race out fast in the morning to race to her Provincial time! In finals, Lauryn took the race out even faster and was much better on the second half to drop another second off her time and win the event! She also had a great 50m Butterfly!

Lily was very good at the meet despite some injuries, she continues to race to season best swims in her breaststroke events as her speed is coming more consistent! She also made a big drop in the 400m Freestyle, lots of pull helps!

Emma raced to big best times in her 400m Freestyle and 200m Freestyle with strong strokes building her speed at the end of her races!

Tom raced a little stronger each day finishing with best times on the Sunday in his 200m Breaststroke and 100m Freestyle! Tom had great dives and underwaters throughout the meet!

Noah showed a lot of speed in his races, his swimming speed was there and was just over best times in his sprint events!

Calais had a great meet, racing to a big best times on the first day in her 100m Backstroke and 50m Freestyle! She then had a day out being sick and came back to race a great 100m Freestyle on Sunday!

Bianca made big improvements in her 200m Individual Medley and 100m Freestyle! She also continues to lower her 100m Breaststroke time with a fast first 50!

Nikki did a great job holding her speed in her 100m Backstroke and 200m Backstroke to race to best times! She was also very fast on our relays, racing way under her best 50m Freestyle time in both of her relays!

Freya showed excellent racing skills in her 100m and 200m events, achieving best times in her 100m Backstroke, 200m Backstroke, and 200m Breaststroke! She also had great relay swims where she produced her best relay split in the 50m freestyle each time she stepped up on the blocks! 

Mimu showed huge improvements in her 200m Breaststroke and 200m Individual Medley, reaching massive personal bests in both events. She also stepped up in a big way in her 200m Freestyle Relay with a 50m Freestyle best time!

Maelie did a great job in her backstroke swimming, leading her to two huge personal bests in her 100m Backstroke and 200m Individual Medley!

Maddie, Mia and Bayden raced on the relays for our team with each of them supporting the team throughout the weekend! They are all a big part of the team and it was great for them to get to race when everyone is ready to go fast. Maddie stepped up with impressive best times in her 50m and 100m Freestyles on the relays! Mia was her best both times she raced the 50m Freestyle! Bayden showed a ton of improvement in all three of his relays as he is building his swimming base!

This meet was not without challenges, as there is a lot of pressure to perform whether swimmers are at their highest level or building towards other meets. Three day meets are challenging as well, we were very strong on the first day and the best times were a little harder each day into the meet. It is a big skill to learn how to manage recovery during these meets so that you can take advantage of other swimmers feeling tired, it happens to most of the swimmers at the meet! Each pool is different as well and the bulkhead at VAC is often very tough for turns. We have had our share of sicknesses as well leading into and during the meet, the swimmers did a very good job of rebounding from some time out of the water. There are never going to be perfect conditions so it is best to learn to deal with adversity at competitions.

Hurricanes Medalists
Lauryn Beattie – Gold 100m Freestyle
Brooke Johannson – Gold 200m Individual Medley, Silver 50m Freestyle, Bronze 200m Freestyle
Pippa McMillan – Bronze 200m Butterfly
Nicolas Ramirez Taake – Gold 50m Freestyle
Dottie Ridgway – Gold 200m Backstroke
Kinsey Rossen – Silver 100m Breaststroke, Bronze 50m Breaststroke

New Time Standards

SwimBC Divisional Championships
Freya Hagen   200m Backstroke
Mimu Jiao    100m Breaststroke, 200m Breaststroke
Emma Johnston   400m Freestyle
Kinsey Rossen    100m Butterfly, 400m Individual Medley

SwimBC Provincial Championships
Lauryn Beattie   100m Freestyle
Brooke Johannson   200m Individual Medley
Nicolas Ramirez Taake   50m Freestyle, 200m Backstroke, 100m Butterfly, 200m Individual Medley
Dottie Ridgway   200m Backstroke – 1^st Time Qualifier!
Kinsey Rossen   50m Breaststroke, 100m Breaststroke

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Five swimmers represented our team at the PSW Winter Invitational this past weekend. It was a great opportunity to race long course as the swimmers focus on preparing for Provincials in March. The swimmers have done a lot of work leading into the meet and gained valuable racing experience working through the meet while racing long course for the first time in a couple of months.

Lauryn lowered her best long course time in three events - 100m Backstroke, 100m Freestyle and 200m Freestyle! 
Noah had very solid swims after being out of the water all week, holding a lot of water early in his races! 
Brooke also had strong strokes and made a strong improvement in finals to race to her best long course 400m Freestyle! 
Burton showed a lot of speed throughout the weekend, highlighted by his best long course times in the 200m Individual Medley!
Kinsey did a great job racing in finals, making big improvements from her preliminary races!  

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We ran a couple of small events during our practice time on Tuesday with great results! Thanks to all the parents who helped officiate to make them happen! First we ran a Time Trial for the Pursuit/Typhoon swimmers as a last chance qualifier for Divisionals as well as another racing opportunity. Then we had a Development Meet for our swimmers in Monsoon and Swim Academy for their first time racing in the new year! 

The Development Meet got off to a great start with one heat of the 200m Individual Medley, Mila and Isa raced really well, while Keon and Mila both finished just three seconds over their LMR qualifying standard! Many of the Monsoon swimmers raced over the weekend at the Mies Schootman Meet and listened to their lessons to make great improvements! Way to go Joelie, Maelie, Emilie, Freya, Mimu, Scarlett and Calais too! Swim Academy 2 showed off their work in training racing to best times - Isa, Sarah, Hadley, Flora, Ryan N, Evan S, Mila, Keon and Amelia! Swim Academy 1 has been working on technique in backstroke and freestyle leading into the meet and it showed with great racinging by Cyrus, James, Cadence, Morgan, Emma M, Ella, Wyatt, Bradley, Matthew and Lily Z!

The highlight of our Time Trial was Bianca racing to her first Divisional time standard in the 50m Breaststroke! She was very determined, had great speed right out of the dive and kept her stroke rate up to get under the time standard! The time trial had a lot of fast results for us while swimmers raced to get new standards and continue to hone their racing skills. We had a great 200m Freestyle where Cameron raced to another Provincial time standard beside a fun showdown between Emma and Tom as both made huge improvements! Yunhan was very fast, just missing the Divisional times in all three of his events, racing at a new level of speed! A lot of best times and a lot of narrow misses of standards. Swimming is tough as there is always a new time standard to shoot for. The most important skill is to learn from each race and use that to motivate the day to day training that follows before the next opportunity. 

100% Best Times
Cyrus B, James C, Joelie C, Maelie C, Calais C, Mimu J, Sarah J, Morgan M, Holly M, Pippa M, Flora M, Emma M, Ryan N, Evan S, Bradley W, Lily Z

New Divisional Time Standards 
Maelie Cheung   50m Backstroke
Tom Jiao   200m Freestyle 
Burton Li   800m Freestyle 
Bianca Roth   50m Breaststroke *first time qualifier!

New Provincial Time Standards
Cameron Chen   200m Freestyle 

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Very proud of our team after a long weekend of racing! We had 31 swimmers compete at the Mies Schootman Invitational where our team stood out in the pool and on deck! Our team won the Margaret Durwood Award at the meet as the team with the best team spirit! Really showed how much we support each other as the swimmers took it upon themselves to loudly cheer for each other through each and every race! 

Our Typhoon/Pursuit swimmers had a hard racing schedule, with many of them racing 14 times over the weekend with a lot of distance events in their racing lineup. At this time in our training it was great to see the strong results in the 200m, 400m and 800m races. The sprinting speed was a little harder for a lot of our swimmers but that will come as we start preparation for Divisionals and Provincials in February/March. A lot of outstanding achievements! 
Lauryn keeps making improvements in all of her races and broke 2:20 in her 200m Freestyle! 
Cameron held his speed very well for big drops in his 200m Freestyle and 100m Butterfly!
Calais had big improvements from her training, racing under 3:00 in 200m Backstroke and a big drop in her 200m Freestyle and 100m Butterfly! 
Emme narrowly missed all best times and showed a lot of speed at the beginning of her races!
Stella had a great meet with great best times in her 100m Breaststroke and 100m Butterfly! 
Tom raced really well through a full event schedule, impressive drops in his 800m Freestyle, 400m Individual Medley and 200m Backstroke! 
Brooke is in a great place from her training and it really showed across all of her events right on her best times and huge drops in her 400m Individual Medley and 200m Backstroke! 
Emma had an amazing 800m Freestyle and 100m Freestyle, just missing all best times!
Burton went out after his races and it lead to great results, under 2:00 in the 200m Freestyle for the first time, some fast 100s and a big best in his 400m Individual Medley! 
Pippa maintained her speed incredibly well in her races leading to a ton of best times, especially impressive 800m Freestyle, 400m Individual Medley, under 1:20 in the 100m Butterfly and her first breaststroke divisional time! 
Nicolas had a great start to the meet with a huge drop in the 800m Freestyle and a really strong 100m Bacsktroke! 
Dottie was busy throughout the weekend and very successful with big improvements in her 800m Freestyle, 400m Individual Medley, 200m Breaststroke and 50m Freestyle! 
Maddie had a great meet, holding her speed well with almost all best times and a big drop in her 200m Backstroke! 
Kinsey had big drops in all three butterfly events, holding the water and racing to best times in the first half of her 200m Butterfly and 100m Butterfly swims! Sprint free was great too! 
Lily showed a lot of improvement by maintaining her speed throughout her races, leading to big best times in her 100m Freestyle and 50m Butterfly! 
Nikki had great second halves of her races to race to big improvements in her 200m Freestyle and 100m Butterfly! She also showed a lot of speed in her 50m Backstroke, 50m Freestyle and 50m Butterfly! 
Mia had a great 100m Freestyle with a strong stroke throughout her race! 

Monsoon had an excellent meet, posting some huge best times and showing all-around improvement in skill! After this great competition, our Monsoon swimmers will be focusing on adding length to their strokes to become more efficient in the water and improving their turns. 
Sarah, our sole representative from Swim Academy 2, did a great job getting a best time in the 100m IM at her first ever non-LMR meet! 
Emilie did a stellar job in her 100m IM, overcoming a significant equipment problem part way through the race to push through for a best time! 
Freya persevered through the most difficult Monsoon schedule of the weekend, achieving best times in 8 of her 9 events! 
Mimu did a fantastic job holding her stroke together and improving her turns in her 50m and 100m Freestyle events leading to best times in both races! 
Chelsea had a fluid stroke and good turns in her 50m and 100m Butterfly, achieving best times in both events! 
Holly had a powerful stroke in her 50m and 100m Breaststroke events, getting best times in both swims! 
Lexie used her great breaststroke kicks to help her achieve best times in her 100m IM and 50m Breaststroke! 
Scarlett had amazing speed and powerful arms in her 50m and 100m Butterfly events, getting best times in both swims! 
Olivia had excellent underwaters in all of her races, helping her to best times in the 100m Breaststroke and 50m Butterfly! 
Evan showed off his speed and power in his 50m Freestyle with a best time! 
Yunhan did a great job in his 100m Breaststroke and 50m Butterfly, achieving best times in both races!

January was a big month with a lot of extra training and racing! The team is in a great spot to improve their racing speed and focus on results at Divisionals and Provincials coming up! 

100% Best Times
Lauryn B, Yunhan L, Scarlett P, Bianca R, Evan Z 

75+% Best Times 
Cameron C, Calais C, Freya H, Mimu J, Tom J, Emma J, Chelsea L, Pippa M, Lexie P, Dottie R, Maddie R, Nikki T

New Divisional Time Standards
Cameron Chen   100m Butterfly
Calais Creed   200m Backstroke
Freya Hagen   100m Breaststroke
Brooke Johannson   400m Individual Medley, 200m Backstroke
Emma Johnston   800m Freestyle 
Pippa McMillan   800m Freestyle, 50m Freestyle, 100m Breaststroke

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Our swimmers in Monsoon, Typhoon, and Pursuit had a great opportunity to race at the Hollyburn pool on Saturday morning. The swimmers had a great opportunity to practice some fast swimming in our home pool and show off their resiliency and stamina by stepping up to race at the end of a tough week of training. Thank you to all the volunteers who helped make this event happen!

The Monsoon swimmers did an excellent job at the time trial on just 2 weeks of training since the holiday break. The focus of the meet was to get some more experience swimming fast in the morning and having some fun while executing race plans. Our Monsoon swimmers did an excellent job rising to the occasion and enjoying the process of racing. Congrats to Maelie for achieving her first Divisional times in the 50m and 100m Breaststrokes!

Swimmers in Typhoon and Pursuit raced a variety of different events to cap off a challenging few weeks of training. Our swimmers achieved a slew of best times and raced some events that they have not previously considered possible! Chief among these events was the 400m (anything but) Free, which some of our swimmers raced Breaststroke, Backstroke, and Butterfly. Great job to Kinsey, Tom, and Dottie for completing a 400m Breaststroke, Emma and Pippa for completing a 400m backstroke, and Brooke for completing a 400m Butterfly! Congratulations to Nikki for achieving her first Divisional time in the 50m Breaststroke and Cameron for racing to his first ever Provincial time in the 100m Freestyle! 

The performances at this time trial are a great indicator of fast swimming in the coming weeks as we start to attend more competitions and gear up for Divisionals and Provincials.

100% Best Times
Cameron C, Joelie C, Maelie C, Lexie P, Bianca R, Nikki T

New Provincial Time Standards
Cameron Chen - 100m Freestyle - 1st time qualified!

New Divisional Time Standards
Maelie Cheung – 50m Breaststroke, 100m Breaststroke – 1^st time qualified!
Nikki Torshizi – 50m Breaststroke – 1^st time qualified!

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More pictures on our photos page!

Our team was competing at two meets to end our fall training cycle with 15 swimmers racing at the Ugly Sweater Invitational in Nanaimo and 3 swimmers racing at the VPSC Winter Invitational at UBC. The Ugly Sweater is a great meet for our team with heats and finals in a smaller competition. Racing twice a day is an incredible way for swimmers to learn from their preliminary swims and improve in finals. Our team really stepped up with a lot of finals each night and some swimmers racing as many as 7 times each day thanks to heats, finals and relays. The VPSC Winter Invitational is a senior meet with heats and finals against most of the top swimmers in our province, outstanding results from Burton, Brooke and Kinsey who all had big breakthroughs at the meet!

Our swimmers who raced in Pointe-Claire and then again at either meet the following weekend really took advantage of the racing opportunity! Everyone really stepped up and built off of their racing the previous weekend – the plan worked!

Highlights from the weekend…

Lauryn made a huge leap in her racing at Pointe-Claire and competed at that higher level at the Ugly Sweater Meet, implementing her stroke rate and racing at a high level throughout!

Calais had a great meet, showing a lot of growth holding her speed in races leading to big drops in her 100m Backstroke, 100m Freestyle and 200m Freestyle events!

Freya was very focused to race to Divisional times, bringing down her best times in all of her events with an aggressive stroke rate throughout each race. Her big moment came in the 50m Breaststroke racing to her first Divisional time standard and setting a new team record!

Stella was on the entire meet, showing her great racing speed across all of her events which was impressive as it was her first time off the blocks this season!

Mimu showed great progress in her 200m Breaststroke and Freestyle taking off a lot of time! She had her biggest moment in finals on Sunday, racing to her first Divisional time standard in the 50m Breaststroke! 

Tom raced a very full schedule between heats and finals every day especially after he raced at Pointe-Claire the previous weekend. Tom continued to step up every time he was off the blocks, racing to best times in every event! 

Holly showed off her great technique throughout the meet and really stepped up in the 200m Butterfly, racing the event officially for the first time! She implemented her stroke corrections from heats to finals in the 200m Butterfly very well to make a huge improvement the second time through! 

Pippa really took a step forward at the meet, dropping significant time in her mid-distance races thanks to her hard work in practice! She broke three minutes in the 200m Butterfly for the first time, closed in on Provincial standards in her 200m Backstroke and had big drops in her 200m Freestyle and 400m Freestyle events! 

Nicolas continued to take off time in his events after racing heats and finals at Pointe-Claire and then again in Nanaimo with big efforts in every session! He added another Provincial standard in the 50m Butterfly and narrowly missed by .01 in the 50m Freestyle! 

Dottie also raced incredibly well with the Pointe-Claire and Nanaimo double! She swam a lot of different events at both meets adding a bunch of Divisional times and narrowing in on her first Provincial standard just missing her 100m Breaststroke by .3! Back to back big improvements as it was very impressive when she went 1:29 in Pointe-Claire and she improved her breakouts to reach a 1:26 in Nanaimo!

Maddie showed a lot of determination to put together a great meet in Nanaimo racing to a ton of best times and improving on her results from Pointe-Claire the week before! 

Bianca also made a huge leap forward with her racing, her strokes are longer and she is beginning to hold the water much better! Bianca just missed all best times and most of the best times were substantial drops! 

Nikki was another swimmer with a big meet, racing very well in all strokes and distances throughout her heats and finals! Nikki closed in on Divisional times just missing by .3 in the 50m Breaststroke! 

Mia swam very well in all of her events, just missing 100% best times as well! Showing a lot of speed early in her races to get her to those times! 

Burton had an outstanding showing at the VPSC Winter Invitational with a busy race schedule against a fast field of BC swimmers! Burton is our first swimmer to break 30 seconds in the 50m Breaststroke, going way under with a time of 29.43! He also had big drops in his 200m IM, 200m Butterfly and 100m Freestyle! Great swimming after his accomplishments in Pointe-Claire!

Brooke really built on her racing at Pointe-Claire to have a great meet at the VPSC Winter Invitational! She swam four 200m Butterfly's over the two swim meets, bettering her time in each race to break 2:30 for the first time! She also swam to big bests in her 100m Butterfly and 50m Butterfly! 

Kinsey had a huge moment in her 200m Breaststroke racing to her first 15&over Provincial time! It was impressive considering she was battling a sickness into the meet and she raced to a great preliminary swim just over the standard and put it all together in finals! Again building on her racing at Pointe-Claire the week before! 

These meets are a great sign for the fast racing that will come in the new year! Swimmers will focus on racing at Divisionals, Provincials and Nationals throughout the rest of the season!

100% Best Times
Freya H, Tom J, Pippa M

75+% Best Times
Calais C, Mimu J, Nic RT, Dottie R, Maddie R, Bianca R, Nikki T, Mia Z

New Team Records
10&under Girls
43.09 – 50m Breaststroke – Freya Hagen (was Sidney Clement 43.40 2016)
15&over Boys
29.43 – 50m Breaststroke – Burton Li (was Rafael Wang 30.30 2022)

New Provincial Time Standards
Nicolas Ramirez Taake – 50m Butterfly
Kinsey Rossen – 200m Breaststroke – 1^st 15&over standard!

New Divisional Time Standards
Calais Creed – 50m Backstroke
Freya Hagen – 50m Breaststroke – 1^st time qualified!
Mimu Jiao – 50m Breaststroke – 1^st time qualified!
Pippa McMillan – 200m Freestyle, 400m Freestyle, 200m Butterfly
Nicolas Ramirez Taake – 50m Breaststroke
Dottie Ridgway – 200m Freestyle, 400m Freestyle, 800m Freestyle, 50m Backstroke

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More pictures on our photos page!

Our team traveled to Montreal to race in one of the fastest age group meets in the country, the Pointe-Claire Invitational. We had a great team showing from our 12 swimmers as we competed at our first heats and finals meet of the season! 

Lauryn displayed her racing speed throughout the meet and stepped up to make corrections from prelims to finals to make big break throughs each night! She raced to gold medals in both the 100m Backstroke and 200m Backstroke racing to Provincial times in both events. Her 100m Backstroke was especially great winning her the top swim of her age group based on the highest scoring Fina points for her time of 1:08.50!

Noah was one of two swimmers to compete in the faster group 3 side of the swim meet for our team. He showed progress in his breakout speed, getting out fast on his transitions from underwater to swimming on his dives and turns. He was strong throughout his 200m Backstroke racing to a best time! 

Brooke shook off a tough start to race to a bronze medal in the 50m Freestyle and have an impressive day of racing on Sunday to finish the meet. Sunday finals started off with a big swim off win in the 100m Freestyle, another fast 100m Freestyle in finals a few minutes later and then followed it with an important improvement in the 200m Butterfly as well as a fast relay split! 

Emme really stepped up to qualify for the meet making big improvements in her freestyle and breaststroke events! She took another step forward at the meet, racing to best times in her sprint events! Emma had a huge 50m Freestyle split on a relay breaking 30 for the first time and came so close in her 50m Freestyles with two 30.0 finishes! 

Tom has already dropped a ton of time this season, qualifying for the meet and racing to his first divisional time standard. He continued to improve racing to another divisional time in the 100m Freestyle, broke 30 seconds for the first time in the 50m Freestyle and finished with a big final swim in his 100m Breaststroke on Sunday night!  

Emma overcame an unfortunate pre-meet ankle injury and made the best of her dives and pushoffs to race stronger throughout the meet. She had an incredible swim in the 100m Freestyle final on Sunday night, dropping two seconds and racing to her first Provincial time standard! 

Burton had an outstanding meet, racing in the faster group and finishing with three medals. Gold in the 100m Breaststroke, Bronze in the 200m Breaststroke and Bronze in the 50m Freestyle with best times in all events! He also raced to a best time in the 200m IM with a great prelims swim! 

Nicolas was out of the water most of the last three weeks after being sick but it did not show at the swim meet. He raced to all best times and raced in five finals always improving from prelims! He finished with two new Provincial time standards in the 200m Freestyle and 100m Freesteyle while just missed three more by less than a second! 

Dottie had a fantastic meet, racing to big best times in her events by racing with strokerate early and doing a great job of holding on. She just missed finals in all of her events, it was really too bad that there was no B finals for the 11-12 year olds. Her 100m and 200m Breaststroke events were especially strong, racing under 1:30 for the first time! 

Maddie put everything into her races and showed her fast strokerate we’ve been working on in practice in all of her races. She was very resilient and raced under her best time in her 200m IM to finish the meet! 

Kinsey surprised herself, but not her coach, with some big improvements from prelims to finals! She handled adversity well and worked on focusing on the process to race to a big 200m Breaststroke final and a new divisional time in the 200m IM! 

Lily has been limited to a lot of pull the last few weeks and her hard work paid off with a strong finish for a big drop in her 200m Freestyle! Then she was able to make it back for a once in a lifetime experience. 

The swimmers stepped up at the end of each session to race to best times for their teammates. The girls relays were particularly strong just missing medals and finishing 4th in the 4x50m Medley Relay (Lauryn, Kinsey, Brooke, Emma) as well as 5th in the 4x50m Freestyle Relay (Emme, Brooke, Emma, Lauryn). The boys stepped up as well with everyone hitting bests during the meet - Noah, Burton, Tom and Nic! We had fast mixed relays the first day which really jump started the meet for some swimmers, congrats to Emma, Lauryn, Nic and Tom as well as Burton, Noah, Brooke and Emme!

There were some ups and downs for everyone at the meet. It was really impressive watching swimmers have tough races and turn around to be really successful at other moments. The training has put the swimmers in a position to race at there best, but there is a lot of learning to do for everyone to reach their best consistently. This meet was an important step towards all the fast swimming we will accomplish this season. The critical next step is how the swimmers respond to training and future training from the lessons that they learnt at the competition. 

We now head to competitions at UBC and in Nanaimo to build on this competition and set up the rest of our season! 

100% Best Times 
Nicolas Ramirez Taake 

Medalists 
Lauryn - Gold 100m Backstroke, Gold 200m Backstroke
Brooke - Bronze 50m Freestyle
Burton - Gold 100m Breaststroke, Bronze 50m Freestyle, Bronze 200m Breaststroke

New Team Records 
15-17 and Open Boys 
1:05.49 - 100m Breaststroke - Burton Li (was Burton Li 1:05.84 2024)

New Time Standards
Quebec Grand Prix 
Lauryn Beattie - 100m Backstroke 

SwimBC Provincial Championships
Lauryn Beattie - 100m Backstroke, 200m Backstroke 
Emma Johnston - 100m Freestyle - 1st Provincial Standard!
Nicolas Ramirez-Taake - 100m Freestyle, 200m Freestyle

SwimBC Divisional Championships 
Lauryn Beattie - 200m Individual Medley
Tom Jiao - 100m Freestyle
Kinsey Rossen - 200m Individual Medley 

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Our Hollyburn Invitational was a great success for our team! We had 51 swimmers participating throughout the day of racing! The 11&under Meet was very busy with over 160 swimmers from six clubs racing together while the 12&over session had another 80 swimmers get off the blocks! A great racing environment for our team and everyone really stepped up racing in our first big meet of the year!

Swim Academy 1 swimmers raced 25m and 50m races as well as the 4x50m Freestyle Relay at the meet. The group is doing an amazing job of starting their races with a ton of energy! Good push-offs and long strokes when they blast off the wall! We need to work on keeping the stroke length as they get tired as well as breathing within their stroke over the next few weeks. Increasing their kick strength will make a big difference as well to stay horizontal at the ends of their lengths! Great work by Cadence, Ivy, Noah, Maeve, Ethan, Alvin, Wayne, Morgan, Emma, Ella, Wyatt, Bradley, Matthew and Lily! Very impressed how focused they all are at the meet! 

Swim Academy 2 swimmers raced 200m IM, 100m Freestyle, a 50m race, and a 4x50m Freestyle Relay. Swimmers in Swim Academy 2 are doing a great job improving in all of their strokes, which was demonstrated by new personal bests for everyone in the 200m IM! Going forward, we will be working on perfecting our turns in all of our strokes so we can be speedy off the walls. Great job Mila, Celine, Liam, Keon, Sarah, Amelia, Isa, Ramona, and Lydia! Special shoutout to Sarah and Evan for breaking 4 minutes for the first time and acheiving their LMR times in the 200m IM! 

Monsoon swimmers are showing great improvement as the season progresses. There were 26 total races from Monsoon swimmers at the meet and 22 personal bests from those. Monsoon swimmers also showed great improvements across all strokes, exmplified by going 6 for 6 personal bests in the 200m IM with an average improvement of 4.31 seconds. Emilie and Mimu did a great job with a tough 4 event schedule and short rest between races. They both got best times in their longer and shorter events! Freya did a great job using her breaststroke to propel herself to a best time in the 200m IM! Chelsea used her strong freestyle to elevate her 200m IM and break 1:20 in the 100m Freestyle! Holly showed great courage in her 200m IM with her fast first 50, which propelled her to breaking 3:30 for the first time! Ellie used her speed and long stroke in her 100m Freestyle to break 1:20 for the first time! Lexie showed off the great work she has done in her training with her Butterfly in 200m IM and 50m Fly with 2 personal bests! Olivia showed off her great Freestyle improvements with personal bests in the 200m IM and 100m Freestyle!

Our swimmers in Typhoon/Pursuit continued to improve their racing skills from where we were in mid-October. It's been a steady progression as speed has increased throughout the season. Very happy to see fast results when racing multiple times without getting a lot of rest in between! A few big highlights: Lauryn raced to her first 13-14 Provincial time in the 50m Backstroke and showed a lot of speed in all of her races! Cameron broke 2:30 in the 200m Freestyle and had a fast 50m Butterfly! Noah really used his breakout speed to move close to his bests! Calais showed off her work in practice holding her speed well in the 100m Freestyle! Emme had a big drop in the 100m Backstroke using her breakouts well! Stella broke 2:40 in the 200m IM and had her speed in the 50m Butterfly! Tom continues to take off a ton of time from the big change in his training speed, leading to his first Divisionals standard in the 50m Breaststroke! Brooke was right on her bests in butterfly, a great sign for our big meets approaching! Emma was very impressive in her 200m Freestyle, taking off a ton of time in my favorite event for the swimmers! Burton continues to close in on his best times, looking forward to December meets! Pippa showed a lot of progress in her 200m IM and her 100m Freestyle, training well and maintaining speed from that training! Maddie continues to take off time with an especially big drop in the 50m Butterfly! Kinsey is also setting herself up for success in December with a good progression from last few weeks! Bayden had a great 50m Butterfly and looked very strong in his breaststroke as well! Lily took off a ton of time in her 50m Backstroke after building a lot of strength in her arms the past few weeks! Nikki took off in everything with nice splitting in her 100m Freestyle! Mia's 50m Butterfly and Breaststroke races were fast right out of the blocks for big improvements! 

100% Best Times 
Isa A, Celine B, Ramona B, Cadence C, Ivy G, Noah H, Maeve H, Mimu J, Tom J, Chelsea L, Lydia L, Wayne L, Hadley M, Holly M, Emma M, Ella N, Ellie P, Lexie P, Dottie R, Evan S, Keon T, Nikki T, Amelia W, Wyatt W, Bradley W, Matthew W, Lily Z

New Time Standards
SwimBC Provincial Championships
Lauryn Beattie - 50m Backstroke - 1st 13-14 standard!

SwimBC Divisional Championships 
Tom Jiao - 50m Breaststroke - 1st 13-14 standard!
Emma Johnston - 50m Butterfly
Pippa McMillan - 100m Freestyle
Dottie Ridgway - 200m Individual Medley, 50m Breaststroke

LMR Meets 
Sarah Johnston - 200m Individual Medley
Evan Shevchenko - 200m Individual Medley

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This was a very good long course racing meet for us as we prepare for the long course season in the new year. Very hard to race long course at this point of the season and this was the best our team has looked at this point. Lots of great swims racing at or under best times and a great sign for where we will be at for Provincials in March!

100% Best Times 
Nicolas

New Time Standards

SwimBC Provincial Championships 
Nicolas Ramirez Taake

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46 Hurricanes swimmers took part in our first Race-A-Thon event! It was our first time with the new format for our fundraiser and it was a very big success! It's a hard balance between racing and training, changing the event from our past timed 5km or 1hour swim to racing more distance events was very productive! It is great for swimmers to race longer swims to gauge their training and this allowed them to accomplish these races when they are not focusing on other events. A fast night of swimming and we did a great job with celebrating without a big space for the team as each group of swimmers finished up!

Our Swim Academy 1 swimmers raced both the 100m Freestyle and 100m Backstroke events! Congratulations to James C, Ivy G, Max H, Maeve H, Ethan J, Alvin L, Morgan M, Ella N, Wyatt W and Oscar Z who all competed in 100m events for the first time! We were especially proud of their long strokes and great flip turns throughout these longer events! 

Swim Academy 2 swimmers swam the 200m Freestyle and 200m/100m Individual Medley events! A lot of first time races for Ramona B, Sarah J, Roniya M, Kinsely M, Kora M, Hadley M, Liam S, Mila S, Keon T and Amelia W! The 200m Individual Medley is an important race for these swimmers to see their progression across all four strokes. Swimmers can compete at LMR (Lower Mainland Region) Meets once they race under 4 minutes in the event. It is a tremendous sign for our Swim Academy 2 swimmers to be close to the 4 minute mark so early in the season! Everyone who raced the event was within 8-40 seconds of their LMR time!

Monsoon swimmers all raced the 400m Freestyle, 200m Individual Medley and another event! Joelie C, Mimu J, Lexie P and Olivia W all completed the 400m Freestyle for the first time! Maelie C, Freya H, Holly M and Ellie P all raced to big improvements in their 400m Freestyles! A lot of great racing in the 200m Individual Medley as well with a big focus on dives and turns helping Monsoon swimmers race to best times! 

Most of Typhoon and Pursuit started the session off with a 400m Individual Medley, sprinted a 100m Individual Medley as well as another event and then finished off with a 800m or 1500m Freestyle! This was the third weekend in a row of racing for these swimmers and they showed a lot of improvement as they are starting to adapt to their training and maintaining their speed much better! We were very proud of them stepping up for big distance swims at the end of the session that were all impressive! A lot of first time events too - Lauryn 400im/800free, Cameron 400im/1500free, Calais 400im/800free, Emme 800free, Tom 1500free, Pippa 1500free, Nic 1500free, Dottie 1500free, Maddie 1500free and Lily 1500free! The distance racing was really inspiring for this early in the season and it was fun to see everyone come together as a team to achieve big accomplishments at the end of the session! 

Within all this racing we had a number of swimmers really step up for big personal time standards! Nikki has been racing to fully qualify for Pointe-Claire and swam a very strong 200m IM to go under her third standard! Tom took off in his 200m Freestyle and held his speed to race well under his third standard and then he raced to his fourth with a really big drop in his 100m Breaststroke! Great early season racing for these two setting goals and then achieving them from their hard work in practice and at swim meets! 

We have raised over $9800 for the team, thanks to everyone who donated! 
Group prize winners are as follows: Brooke(Pursuit), Cameron(Typhoon), Yunhan(Monsoon), Sarah(Swim Academy 2), Chad(Swim Academy 1)
Draw prize winners were: Hadley, Maddie and Evan! 
Everyone who participated in our Race-A-Thon will receive a Hollyburn Hurricanes water bottle when they arrive! 
Thanks to all of your fundraising efforts! 

Now a couple of weekends off before we host six other clubs at our Hollyburn Invitational on November 23! 

100% Best Times 
Ramona B, Cameron C, James C, Joelie C, Maelie C, Ivy G, Max H, Maeve H, Mimu J, Tom J, Ethan J, Emma J, Sarah J, Alvin L, Yunhan L, Roniya M, Kinsely M, Kora M, Hadley M, Morgan M, Holly M, Ella N, Ellie P, Lexie P, Nicolas RT, Dottie R, Liam S, Mila S, Nikki T, Amelia W, Olivia W, Wyatt W, Oscar Z, Mia Z

New Time Standards

SwimBC Divisional Championships 
Cameron Chen  800m Freestyle, 1500m Freestyle, 100m Backstroke, 400m Individual Medley
Pippa McMillan  1500m Freestyle
Nicolas Ramirez Taake  800m Freestyle, 1500m Freestyle, 400m Individual Medley
Dottie Ridgway  1500m Freestyle, 400m Individual Medley

Pointe-Claire Invitational Meet
Lauryn Beattie  400m Individual Medley
Cameron Chen  800m Freestyle, 400m Individual Medley
Tom Jiao  200m Freestyle, 100m Breaststroke *Now Fully Qualified!*
Emma Johnston  400m Individual Medley
Yunhan Liu  200m Individual Medley *first time standard!*
Pippa McMillan  800m Freestyle 
Nicolas Ramirez Taake 800m Freestyle, 400m Individual Medley
Dottie Ridgway  800m Freestyle
Bayden Smith  800m Freestyle
Lily Thompson  1500m Freestyle, 400m Individual Medley 
Nikkie Torshizi  200m Individual Medley *Now Fully Qualified!*

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We hosted our first Development Meet of the season on Sunday it was a tremendous success with 37 Hurricanes competing at the meet! Our team did an exceptional job of racing throughout the meet with a lot of exciting results and everyone racing on relays! 

14 swimmers competed in their first ever competition! Congratulations to Gunnar E, Ivy G, Noah H, Chad L, Wayne L, Morgan M, Emma M, Ella N, Ryan N, Sam S, Wyatt W, Bradley W, Matthew W and Lily Z!

Swim Academy 1 had a great competition with almost the entire group participating! They were so good at focusing on their races and being a big part part of the team between swims! Everyone swam 50m Freestyle, 25m Backstroke and 25m Breaststroke as well as a 4x50m relay! Our basic skills of head and body position really came through. Now we will focus on keeping more length on our streamlines and strokes to increase speed for our next competition. 

Swim Academy 2 did a great job competing in all of their events! The group did a great job at pushing themselves in their races and supporting their teammates. The skills we have been developing in all 4 strokes really showed in all races and everyone got at least one personal best! In our training for our next competition we will be focusing more on our turns and technique at speed.

Monsoon excelled at this first development meet. For some of the swimmers, this was the third opportunity of the season for racing after VPSC and the Hollyburn Time Trial. Monsoon swimmers who swam last weekend had the opportunity to round out their events, now having swam 50, 100, and 200 of freestyle, backstroke, and breaststroke as well as 50 fly, 100 IM, and 200 IM. Swimmers who repeated events from last weekend even showed improvement just one week later! Going forward, we will be working on refining our strokes and getting used to swimming longer distances.

Thanks to all the parents who helped volunteer!

100% Best Times 
Ramona B, Joelie C, Maelie C, Gunnar E, Sienna EW, Ivy G, Noah H, Victoria H, Lydia L, Chad L, Alvin L, Wayne L, Morgan M, Emma M, Ella N, Ryan N, Lexie P, Sam S, Wyatt W, Bradley W, Matthew W, Lily Z

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Swimmers in Monsoon, Typhoon and Pursuit did a great job of racing on Saturday morning! It was our first competition using the new scoreboard and timing system! A big thank you to all of the volunteers as well as Khosro, Sam and Matt who put a lot of work into setting up the scoreboard! 

Our Monsoon swimmers did a great job completing a variety of different races! The focus for swimmers who attended VPSC was to improve upon some weaker skills and they did an excellent job with that across the board. For the swimmers who did not attend VPSC, this was their first opportunity to get off the blocks this year and they swam very well. Chelsea had the opportunity to race her first ever 100m Butterfly and Lexie raced her first ever 100m Butterfly and 200m Breaststroke, which is an exciting way to start the season!

The focus for the Typhoon and Pursuit swimmers was to race the 400m Freestyle as well as two more events. Our 400m Freestyles went very well, especially good job by Cameron, Calais, Pippa, Nicolas, Dottie and Bianca with early season best times! 

Congrats to Lauryn, Calais, Maddie and Nikki for completing their first 200m Butterfly race! Also great job Cameron for dropping 50 seconds in his 200m Butterfly! Only a few more swimmers owing a 200m Butterfly this year!

The biggest highlight was Emme stepping up in her 100m Breaststroke to race to her qualifying time for Pointe-Claire, it was a very impressive swim! More highlights included Tom taking off more time in his 200m Freestyle and 100m Breaststroke after racing both events to best times a week before! Cameron completed his list of great swims with a fast 50m Freestyle! Pippa keeps taking off time every race! Bayden raced to his best 50m Freestyle! Atria was very strong in her 200m Backstroke and 100m Butterfly! 

100% Best Times 
Cameron C, Emilie C, Chelsea L, Pippa M, Lexie P

New Time Standards
SwimBC Divisional Championships 
Cameron Chen - 400m Freestyle 
Nicolas Ramirez Taake - 400m Freestyle 

Pointe-Claire Invitational Meet 
Cameron Chen - 400m Freestyle 
Emme Gardiner - 100m Breaststroke *now fully qualified!*
Nicolas Ramirez Taake - 400m Freestyle 

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Our first meet of the season for swimmers in Monsoon, Typhoon and Pursuit was the VPSC (Vancouver Pacific Swim Club) Fall Invitational at UBC. We had 28 swimmers take part in the three long sessions. It was a great introduction to managing themselves at a swim meet and a good chance for swimmers to see where they are at so early in our season. The goal is to take lessons learnt back into training to help set up our racing in late November and December. 

Underwaters have been a big focus in practice and were a priority at the swim meet. We had a lot of athletes buy in to their underwater dolphin kick throughout the weekend and need to mention Dottie, Kinsey and Noah who were exceptional at maintaining their kicks off every wall in their races! Underwaters will continue to be a big focus, it has to be consistently trained to be reliable when racing!

We had a few swimmers really focusing on Pointe-Claire time standards early in the season. Congratultions to Emme, Tom, Chelsea and Nikki who all raced to their first or second time standards for the meet! It's tough to get up and make big drops to start the year which made their accomplishments very impressive!

The goal for Typhoon and Pursuit swimmers was to race every 100m and 200m event over the weekend, a very challenging schedule! It was impressive how well swimmers raced their 100m Butterflys at the end of the day Saturday after 13 hours at the pool! Best times to end a long day by Noah, Tom, Nicolas and Nikki! Also impressive the number of well swum 200m Butterflys as the last event Sunday! A special congrats to Tom, Nicolas and Dottie who raced their first 200m Butterflys, as well as Burton, Pippa and Lily (66 sec drop!) who raced to 200m Butterfly best times! The meet was a great set up for longer heats and finals meets that are coming for our swimmers in December, we don't do a lot of long day training meets but great to see the swimmers rise up when they are challenged! 

Congrats to Nicolas who raced to his first SwimBC Provincial time standard in the 100m Backstroke! A great sign for setting up the season for Nic!

100% Best Times 
Roen B, Emme G, Mimu J, Tom J, Ian J, Yunhan L, Nicolas RT

66+% Best Times 
Emilie C, Chelsea L, Scarlett P, Dottie R, Hannah T, Olivia W, Mia Z

New Time Standards
SwimBC Provincial Championships
Nicolas Ramirez Taake - 100m Backstroke - 1st Provincial standard!

SwimBC Divisional Championships 
Nicolas Ramirez Taake - 100m Breaststroke, 200m Breaststroke
Dottie Ridgway - 100m Breaststroke
Hannah Thompson - 50m Freestyle

Pointe-Claire Invitational Meet 
Emme Gardiner - 100m Freestyle
Tom Jiao - 100m Freestyle
Chelsea Lan - 100m Backstroke
Pippa McMillan - 100m Breaststroke, 200m Breaststroke
Nicolas Ramirez Taake - 100m Breaststroke, 200m Breaststroke, 200m Butterfly
Hannah Thompson - 200m Freestyle 
Nikkie Torshizi - 100m Breaststroke, 200m Breaststroke

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Our Hollyburn Summer Meet was a big success! This meet was a great ending to our incredible season and we are very proud of how strong the team was throughout the meet! It is very fun to have the whole team on deck together racing and supporting each other! A great way to end the season and build a lot of momuntem for next year! 

Our younger Monsoon and Swim Academy swimmers were fantastic! We have had a lot of buy in to our summer training this year and it really showed at the the meet. Training and racing through July helps set up the next successful season, it was great to see so many swimmers take part! The swimmers did a great job in the heats and finals format, medals were a big motivator with a ton of fantastic efforts in finals to push for top three finishes! Our older swimmers in Pursuit and Typhoon raced really well too and it was great to see everyone on deck together again! 

A few highlights: Isa had a great 50m Breaststroke! Joelie had big improvements in all of her races! Maelie also improved across the board and swam her first 200m Breaststroke and 200m Backstroke at the meet! Calais showed a lot of speed and pushed hard for medals in her events! Mimu was diving to bests in all of her events! Tom raced very well for a ton of best times! Brooke broke 28 seconds in her 50m Freestyle and had a great 100m IM! Sarah had a very strong 50m Butterfly! Yunhan showed how much he has improved this year with big time drops in all of his events! Kinsley had a great 50m Backstroke! Kora made a big drop in 100m Freestyle! Holly showed off her backstroke skills with an impressive 200m Backstroke! Pippa made improvements in finals again and again throughout the meet! Ellie showed so much progress with big improvements across the board! Lexie had a great meet and swam her first 200m Backstroke! Scarlett really improved her 200m Individual Medley to swim well under the LMR time standard! Nicolas narrowly missed his Provincials standards while racing to all golds! Dottie's breaststroke was fast with very well swum 200m Breaststrokes for a new Divisionals event! Maddie really improved her 100m Butterfly! Kinsey's freestyle showed a lot of speed with a big best in her 50m Freestyle! Mila was outstanding with big time drops in all events! Hannah raced to all bests and really lowered her 100m IM time! Lily added 50m Freestyle to her Divisional times and showed improvement in all four strokes in her 100m IM! Amelia was fanstastic in all events and her 50m Freestyle really stood out! Olivia was on fire throughout the meet with an especially great 100m Backstroke!  

A special congratulations to our graduating swimmers - Valentina, Bodie and Rafael! They all did a great job throughout the meet and showed us how much we will miss them in the upcoming season. Valentina was fantastic, racing to big best times in her sprint fly and freestyle events while racing right on her best in everything else! Bodie displayed his great racing skills, stepping up in finals to win a lot of tight races and post bests in his fly and back sprints! Rafael showed his strength in his sprint freestyle events racing very well in finals! Also need to mention the incredible racing of Henry throughout the summer, he graduated last year and had a great offseason back with our team! Best times across the board including a new Provincial standard in 100m Freestyle! Fully committing to training and racing makes a huge difference! We now have seven Hollyburn alumni swimmers racing for university teams across Canada and the US! We wish them all the best and hope to see them back with the team in the future!

Thanks so much to all the parents (and swimmers) who helped out throughout the meet! The meet is a huge undertaking and it really takes a lot of support to have it run smoothly. 

Hollyburn Medalists
Henry - Gold 50m Free, Gold 100m Fly, Gold 100m Free, Silver 50m Fly, Bronze 100m Brst
Calais - Gold 50m Free, Bronze 100m Back, Bronze 50m Back, Bronze 100m Free 
Ashton - Silver 100m IM, Silver 50m Back
Tom - Gold 200m Free, Silver 50m Free, Silver 50m Brst
Brooke - Gold 200m IM, Gold 100m Fly, Silver 100m IM, Bronze 50m Fly, Bronze 50m Free
Valentina - Gold 50m Free, Gold 50m Brst, Gold 100m IM, Gold 100m Brst, Gold 50m Fly, Bronze 50m Back
​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Burton - Gold 200m Brst, Gold 200m IM, Gold 100m Brst, Silver 50m Brst, Bronze 50m Fly, Bronze 100m Fly 
Yunhan - Silver 100m Back, Silver 50m Back, Bronze 50m Brst 
Holly - Bronze 100m Fly
Pippa - Gold 100m Back, Gold 100m Fly, Gold 200m Free, Gold 50m Back, Gold 200m IM, Gold 200m Back
Ellie - Bronze 100m Back, Bronze 200m Free, Bronze 50m Fly
Nicolas - Gold 50m Free, Gold 100m Back, Gold 200m Free, Gold 50m Back, Gold 100m Free, Gold 50m Fly
Maddie - Bronze 100m Back 
Kinsey - Silver 100m Brst 
Bodie - Gold 50m Brst, Gold 100m IM, Gold 50m Back, Gold 50m Fly, Silver 100m Fly
Hannah - Silver 50m Brst 
Lily - Gold 200m Brst, Silver 50m Brst
Rafael - Bronze 50m Brst, Bronze 100m Free 

New Time Standards
SwimBC Provincial Championships
Henry Brewster - 100m Freestyle

SwimBC Divisional Championships 
Henry Brewster - 100m Breaststroke
Calais Creed - 50m Freestyle 
​​​​​​​Dottie Ridgway - 200m Breaststroke
Lily Thompson - 50m Freestyle 

LMR Meets 
​​​​​​​Scarlett Peng - 200m Individual Medley

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Our team was outstanding at Summer Provincial Championships! We raced to additional finals every day of the meet with our swimmers racing to best times and moving up the rankings through the meet! It was amazing how we raced into more finals and tons of best times every single day of the meet!

Henry was outstanding, racing to gold medals in both the 100m Butterfly and 200m Butterfly with big improvements in his best times! He was also just out touched for gold with another big best time in the 50m Butterfly by our friend Robert from Chinook!

Valentina dominated the breaststroke events, racing to first in all three distances! She also had a big break through in the 50m Butterfly racing to her trials time for next year! 

Burton made a big drop in the 100m Breaststroke, lowering his team record and racing to a silver medal! He had an outstanding finish in the 50m Breaststroke to race for Gold and lower his team record! He also swam to a bronze in the 50m Butterfly and broke a minute for the first time in the 100m Butterfly! Burton had a great 200m Freestyle swim as well!

Brooke raced to all three butterfly finals with the highlight being her 50m Butterfly final where she raced to a big improvement! 

Lily made finals in the 50m Breaststroke at her first Provincial Championships with a big long course time improvement! 

Bayden had some great swims improving his breakout speed and raced to an impressive best time in his 50m Breaststroke! 

Our relays were incredible throughout the weekend with Emma and Lily racing to best times in all of the distances! Brooke and Valentina were very impressive racing on relays as well adding to their busy racing schedules! 

Top 8 Finishes
Henry - 100m Butterfly Gold!, 50m Butterfly Silver!, 200m Butterfly Gold!
Brooke - 100m Butterfly, 50m Butterfly, 200m Butterfly
Valentina - 100m Butterfly, 200m Breaststroke Gold!, 50m Butterfly Bronze!, 100m Breaststroke Gold!, 200m Individual Medley Bronze!, 50m Breaststroke Gold!
Burton - 100m Butterfly, 200m Breaststroke, 50m Butterfly Bronze!, 200m Freestyle, 100m Breaststroke Silver!, 50m Breaststroke Gold!
Lily - 50m Breaststroke 

New Team Records 
Open Girls 
29.05 - 50m Butterfly - Valentina Kolytchev (was Jessica Strong 29.27 2022)

Open Boys 
30.70 - 50m Breaststroke - Burton Li (was Burton Li 30.89 2024)
1:07.74 - 100m Breaststroke - Burton Li (was Burton Li 1:08.72 2024)

New Time Standards
Canadian Junior Championships
Burton Li - 100m Butterfly 

Canadian Swimming Championships 
Henry Brewster - 50m Butterfly, 100m Butterfly

SwimBC Provincial Championships (long course times)
Burton Li - 200m Freestyle 
Lily Thompson - 50m Breaststroke

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Our team did a great job of racing at Divisionals with some really great results! 

Lily's 50m Breaststroke was super exciting the first day, after narrowly missing Provincials in the event earlier in the season she broke through and went way under the time standard while also racing to a Gold medal! She also raced to a huge best time and Silver medal in the 200m Breaststroke! And a big best time in the 100m Breaststroke! 

Hannah was great in her sprint breaststroke, freestyle and backstroke events, racing to best times and a big Silver medal finish in the 50m Breaststroke! 

Burton had a huge meet, really coming through with very impressive pacing in his 400m Freestyle and 1500m Freestyle events as well as huge drops in his 100m Breaststroke (team record!) and 200m Breaststroke! Burton dropped 14 seconds in his 400m Freestyle to finish with a Bronze medal and over a minute in his 1500m Freestyle to win the Gold medal! 

Brooke had a great meet, especially in her finals events! Her 100m Freestyle was super fast and qualified her for Provincials along with a Gold medal! She also had her incredible 200m Freestyle finishing with a Bronze and just over her provincial time! 

Noah had great 100m Freestyles, improving his time three different times while narrowly missing Provincials! 

Calais did great at her first Divisionals, almost all best times and a big final swim in the 50m Butterfly! 

Cameron had a great meet, big best times in his 100m Freestyle and 50m Backstroke! 

Dottie had a very good 200m Freestyle and 200m Individual Medley, racing to best times! She also made top 8 in the 400m Individual Medley!

Emma swam really good races in the 100m, 200m and 400m Freestyles finishing with best times! The day after Divisionals she made a huge drop in the 50m Freestyle at our time trial and narrowly missed her Provincial time by .1!

Kinsey did a great job racing in finals, finishing with a Silver medal in her 200m Breaststroke! 

Bayden swam to his best 200m Butterfly! 

Maddie was great on the relays, showing a lot of speed in the sprints! All of our relays were very fun with best times from almost every leg of each relay!

Top 8 Finishes
Calais - 50m Butterfly
Noah - 100m Freestyle
Brooke - 200m IM, 400m Freestyle, 200m Freestyle, 100m Freestyle Gold!, 50m Backstroke
Burton - 400m Freestyle Bronze!, 1500m Freestyle Gold! 
Dottie - 400m IM
Kinsey - 50m Breaststroke, 200m Breaststroke Silver! 
Bayden - 400m IM
Hannah - 50m Breaststroke Silver!
Lily - 50m Breaststroke Gold!, 100m Breaststroke, 200m Breaststroke Silver! 

New Team Records 
Open Boys 
1:05.84 - 100m Breaststroke - Burton Li (was Bodie Simard 1:07.24 2023)

New Time Standards
SwimBC Provincial Standards
Brooke Johannson - 100m Freestyle
Burton Li - 400m Freestyle, 1500m Freestyle
Lily Thompson - 50m Breaststroke 

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We saw a lot of fast swimming at the Mel Zajac Jr International swim meet as our team competed against many of the fastest swimmers in Canada! The meet hosted almost half of Canada's Olympic Team as they prepare for Paris next month. 

It was a very good meet for us as we have started focusing on setting up races in our training. It was a good experience for everyone at the meet and we raced well throughout the weekend. Here are some of our biggest highlights!

Brooke had some incredible break throughs with best times in her top events, the 50m Butterfly and 100m Butterfly! She raced in her first swim off in the 50m Butterfly and made finals in the 100m Butterfly! Jessica set a lot of best long course times and was a big part of finals every night racing in finals in five individual events! Henry had a great 200m Butterfly second swim, splitting well and just missing his best! Bodie stepped up with a very fast 50m Butterfly final! Burton had a very impressive 100m Breaststroke moving up a lot of places to get a spot in finals and going 1:08 for the first time! 

Finalists
Henry Brewster - 200m Butterfly 
Brooke Johannson - 100m Butterfly
Valentina Kolytchev - 100m Breaststroke, 200m Breatstroke, 50m Breaststroke
Burton Li - 100m Breaststroke
Bodie Simard - 50m Butterfly
Jessica Strong - 100m Breaststroke, 50m Butterfly, 100m Butterfly, 50m Backstroke, 50m Breaststroke

New Team Records 
Open Girls 
32.77 - 50m Breaststroke - Jessica Strong (was Jessica Strong 33.14 2022)
28.73 - 50m Butterfly - Jessica Strong (was Jessica Strong 29.27 2022)
1:04.98 - 100m Butterfly - Jessica Strong (was Jessica Strong 1:05.42 2022)
Open Boys 
1:08.72 - 100m Breaststroke - Burton Li (was Bodie Simard 1:09.33 2023)

New Time Standards
SwimBC Provincial Standards
Jessica Strong - 100m Freestyle

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We had a great meet at our pool with three other teams attending to make a busy pool deck. A great sign for the racing that is coming up the rest of the summer - Mel Zajac, SwimBC Divisionals, SwimBC Provincials, Hollyburn Summer Meet and Canadian Swimming Championships! 

A few highlights...
Ryan had a great meet with big time drops across four events! Henry and Bodie raced a very impressive 200m Butterfly pushing each other to best times! Cameron took off adding two more SwimBC Divisional times in the 50m Butterfly and 200m Freestyle! Calais was great holding her speed in her 100m events! Tom was very fast in his freestyle sprints! Brooke took off time in her specialty the 50m Butterfly! Emma got closer to her provincial time in the 50m Freestyle! Valentina had two impressive best times in her 50m Breaststroke and 200m Individual Medley! Aden took off a lot of time in all of his events! Burton qualified his 200m Backstroke for Divisionals! Yunhan showed a lot of improvement in all of his events! Pippa raced to another divisional time in the 50m Butterfly! Nicolas raced his first 100m Butterfly with a very fast time! Dottie had a fantastic 100m Breaststroke! Maddie's focus in training led to some important improvements in all of her events! Bianca raced to bests in all of her swims! Bayden went out after all of his races to race under his best times! Jessica's return to short course metres from college was fantastic with best times in four events! Lily showed a lot of speed in the 50m Butterfly! Nikki swam very consistently throughout her 200m Backstroke to smash her best time! Rafael almost broke 30 in the 50m Backstroke with a 30.01! Mia showed a lot of speed in her 50m Freestyle and then held her speed in the 200m Freestyle for two bests! 
And everyone raced well, we had a very good team energy and it was fun to have everyone on deck supporting each other throughout the meet!

100% Best Times 
Ryan B, Cameron C, Aden L, Yunhan L, Nicolas RT, Maddie R, Bianca R, Bayden S, Mia Z

New Team Records 
Open Girls 
25.36 - 50m Butterfly - Jessica Strong (was Quincy Bender 28.85 2018)

New Time Standards
SwimBC Divisional Championships 
Cameron Chen - 50m Butterfly, 200m Freestyle
Pippa McMillan - 50m Butterfly
Rafael Wang - 50m Backstroke

SwimBC Provincial Championships 
Jessica Strong - 100m Freestyle

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Whistler is always a fun meet for our team as we always have swimmers from every group attending. This year our swimmers did an outstanding job of racing throughout the weekend despite long sessions on the pool deck. Our Swim Academy swimmers were fantastic showing off their swimming skills, there were a lot of disqualifications at the meet and we had only a handful even with our big numbers! Monsoon continues to improve every time they are off the blocks, swimmers raced a lot of events over the two days and looked great with strong technique! Our swimmers in Pursuit and Typhoon swam really well considering the training they have done the past few weeks, a great sign for our upcoming performance meets! 

100% Best Times 
Isa A, Cadence C, Calais C, Sienna EW, Lydia L, Kinsley M, Kora M, Hadley M, Flora M, Ellie P, Nicolas RT, Sam T, Amelia W

75+% Best Times 
Emilie C, Mimu J, Tom J, Emma J, Sarah J, Pippa M, Lexie P, Bianca R, Lily T, Keon T, Nikki T

New Time Standards
SwimBC Divisional Championships 
Noah Cheon - 50m Backstroke
Burton Li - 400m Freestyle
Pippa McMillan - 50m Backstroke, 200m Individual Medley
Nicolas Ramirez Taake - 200m Freestyle, 50m Backstroke, 50m Butterfly

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Canadian Olympic Trials is the biggest meet in Canada every four years. All of our country's top swimmers take part and race to qualify for the Canadian Olympic Team! Canada is very strong right now and we were able to witness incredible swims by the top swimmers in the country! Summer McIntosh raced to a World Record in 400m IM! We saw great races by Maggie MacNeil, Josh Liendo, Finlay Knox, Mary-Sophie Harvey and the rest of our Olympic Team. 

Couldn't be prouder of both Valentina and Bodie who performed very well at the meet despite some set backs out of their control these past few months as both were out of the water for long periods with harsh sicknesses. Valentina started off with a best in her 100m Butterfly time trial! She then swam a great preliminary swim in her 100m Breaststroke just over her best time. In a deep field she needed the best to make a second swim. In her 200m Breaststroke she was very strong through 125m before falling off. A great effort, especially after she wasn't able to race at her best through Provincials and Westerns to prepare for the meet. Bodie just returned to training less than a month before the meet after a couple of weeks out of the water and raced his time trials very well to start the meet - 100m Butterfly, 100m Breaststroke and 100m Backstroke. He focused well through the week long meet to have an impressive 200m Butterfly finishing just a second off his fastest time with the most well swum splits he has accomplished through the race! On the last day Bodie finished .1 over his best 100m Butterfly time again managing his speed very well throughout the race! This was very high level swimming under difficult circumstances. They both wanted more but I thought they did a tremendous job as most swimmers at these meets need to learn before maximizing performance at the biggest competitions. Valentina and Bodie will take this experience and build on their performances as they compete as varsity athletes and race in more Canadian Trials in the coming years. 

It was great to also have Tristan and Jessica racing for Hollyburn at the meet! Tristan has spent the last season at McGill and was able to compete in three Junior Finals. Tristan raced to a junior bronze medal in the 200m Butterfly lowering his best time by a second! He had a very fast second half and finished with a best time of 2:03.33! Tristan also finished 5th in the juniors for 100m Butterfly and 7th in the 100m Backstroke! Jessica joined the University of Pittsburgh last summer and has had a great season leading to two second swims at Trials. Jessica dropped her best time to a fast 1:10.94 in the 100m Breaststroke, finishing 14th overall! Jessica also raced in the B final for the 200m Breaststroke racing at her best in heats and finals! 

A very exciting meet for our team and something we can build on with more qualifiers in the future and more alumni racing as they compete through university! 

New Team Records 
Open Girls 
1:10.94 - 100m Breaststroke - Jessica Strong (was Valentina Kolytchev 1:12.60 2023)
Open Boys 
24.24 - 50m Freestyle - Tristan Govier (was Tristan Govier 24.35 2023)
58.04 - 100m Backstroke - Tristan Govier (was Tristan Govier 58.33 2023)
2:03.33 - 200m Butterfly - Tristan Govier (was Tristan Govier 2:05.84 2023)

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We had a great little time trial on May 8 with a bunch of best times, new divisional events and team records! 
Great job by Cameron, Maelie, Calais, Garrick, Freya, Tom, Emma, Chelsea, Aden, Burton, Nicolas, Maddie, Bayden, Nikki and Rafael for racing to best times! A big congrats to Dottie who added another Divisional Standard in the 100m Backstroke! And a really impressive effort by Pippa who raced to two more team records in the 100m Butterfly and 200m Individial Medley as well as one more Divisional time in the 100m Butterfly! 

New Team Records 
10&under Girls 
1:22.09 - 100m Butterfly - Pippa McMillan (was Sidney Clement 1:27.69 2016)
2:59.46 - 200m Individual Medley - Pippa McMillan (was Meghan Haigh 3:06.18 2018)

New Time Standards
SwimBC Divisional Championships 
Pippa McMillan - 100m Butterfly
Nicolas Ramirez Taake - 100m Freestyle
Dottie Ridgway - 100m Backstroke

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Our team looked very strong racing at the Surrey Springfest Long Course Meet! The meet was split into 13&under morning session and 14&over afternoon session. Our younger swimmers did a great job of racing in a long course pool, many of them for the first time this season! The older swimmers have been ramping up their training but worked through the meet for some great results!

It’s always fun to compare the improvement each swimmer makes in a year time.  It was clear that the more you come to practice the more you improve.  Pippa who has a very consistant attendance swam so well.  At only 10 she demonstrates good technical and tactical skill which results in 35 sec drop in 200m IM, 23sec drop on 200m back, 14sec in 100m back, 10sec in 50m fly and was the only 10years old to swim a 400m IM. So kind of a good day at the pool for her as she also set six 10&under team records! Calais also swam very well with 4 out of 6 best time inlcuding a great effort in her 50m Butterfly to qualify for Divisional. Dottie had a fantastic 200m free with a 17sec drop,  19sec best time on her 100m back, best time in  50-100-200m free and 15sec in her 200m IM. (PS she also has perfect attendance). Emily Garden was a fierce cheerer even for other swim team but I guess she was in a good mood swimming so well.  Her 200m free was pretty amazing with a 20sec best time, not bad for a first time long course meet. It was Holly birthday and she wish nothing else but to be competing on her special day, especially having missing the whole week of training for sickness but like a champion she swam her best effort.  Best time in her 200m iM by 7 sec.  Hannah had a great 200m free dropping 25sec from her previous time. and Nikki swam so much faster with100% best time, dropping 33sec in 200m free and 14sec in 100m breast.  Congratulations to Nic who not only swam is first long course meet but also got his divisional time in his freestyle and backstroke races. He also finished first in is age category on the 100m back, second in the 200m back and third in all his other races. Tom also had a great meet with best time in 100m free and 200m im. Not to forget Cameron who also had 100% best time dropping an impressive 15sec in the 200m Back.

The Typhoon and Pursuit swimmers raced to some best times and had to work through their best events because of the hard training we are doing right now as well as the fact that they've raced those events many times long course already this season. A lot of the successes were showing top race speed for portions of their events as we set up the basics for our end of year meets. The swimmers adapted after a tough first day which was great to see, a few of the swims that stood out: 
Burton, Brooke, Lily and Ashton's 400m Freestyles! Brooke and Lily's 200m Individual Medley! Bayden's 400m Individual Medley! Emma's 100m Freestyle! Valentina's 50m Fly! Also as proof of a positive mindset making a huge difference, Raf was so good in his 400m Individual Medley and 400m Freestyle, taking out the races fast and then working like crazy to hold on, racing to big best times in both of the events! 

100% Best Times 
Cameron, Calais, Emily, Tom, Emma, Holly, Pippa, Nicolas, Dottie, Hannah, Lily, Nikki

New Team Records 
10&under Girls 
39.59 - 50m Backstroke - Pippa McMillan (was Carly Kagna 41.09 2009)
1:21.28 - 100m Backstroke - Pippa McMillan (was Natalie Reeves 1:27.09 2011)
2:58.70 - 200m Backstroke - Pippa McMillan (was Morgan Bender 3:09.07 2014)
36.66 - 50m Butterfly - Pippa McMillan (was Sidney Clement 39.35 2016)
3:05.56 - 200m Individual Medley - Pippa McMillan (was Sidney Clement 3:06.86 2016)
6:21.24 - 400m Individual Medley - Pippa McMillan (was Sidney Clement 6:30.67 2016)

New Time Standards
SwimBC Divisional Championships 
Calais Creed - 50m Butterfly
Nicolas Ramirez Taake - 50m Freestyle, 100m Freestyle, 100m Backstroke, 200m Backstroke

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Congratulations to all the swimmers that participate in our development meet this last Saturday.  We have 2 new LMR qualifier: Olivia Wang had a fantastic meet with major best time in her 50m back and 100m free and a pretty fast 200m IM 3 :34.  and Mimu Jiao who got her time by 8sec. she also swam a great first 200m Free.

Monsoon swimmers that participate did very good on their push off in free and back which results in lots of best time for the 100/200m free and back.  Chelsea drop 5 sec in her 100m back and 8sec in her 100m free.  Maelie best time 100m back and first 200m free. Tom improve is 100m back by 7sec.  Ellie 100% best time with a drop of 12 sec in 100m back and 16sec in 200m breast to brake 4:00. Roen B swam a very efficient 200m back and drop 6 sec in 200m IM.

Swimmer from Swim Academy 2 was in number and I want to do a special shut out to Kora and Kinsey that just joined the team a month ago and were so good and fast, showing off their fresh new flip turn, dive and strokes technique.  Evan S. Keon T. and Isa also swam their first 200m IM very well needing to clean up their turns for next time. Lexie was show that at only 7 she is confident to race and has some very beautiful strokes.  Jolie also swam a very good first 200m free.

As for our younger swimmers we had many that swam their first 50m or 100m and some even attempt and succeed to do a legal and fast flip turn. Good job to Hadley, Sienna, Lydia, Amelia and Sepand that swam their first 100m IM.  I was also impressed with Ethan J’s progress and strong race and same with his teammate Alvin.  Mila and Flora had great improvement in their breaststroke and backstroke with best time.  Overall, another successful and fun meet to watch with a lot of Hurricane swimmers winning their heat-collecting ducks, you guys look good in the pool.  Keep it up!

100% Best Times 
Isa A, Maelie C, Sienna EW, Chelsea L, Hadley M, Flora M, Ellie P, Lexie P, Evan S, Mila S, Keon T, Nikki T, Olivia W

New Time Standards 
LMR (Lower Mainland Region) Standards
Mimu Jiao - 200m Individual Medley
Olivia Wang - 200m Individual Medley

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Langley was a very good training meet for us. We had swimmers who were just returning from our Phoenix training camp and some swimmers who were starting to move again after spring break. The swimmers did a great job racing in the heats and finals format, improving on their morning swims. 

I was really impressed with how some of the swimmers competed after coming off of training camp. Emme, Valentina, Burton, Maddie, Kinsey, Bayden, Lily, Raf and Mia all did a great job continuing the work from the previous two weeks. 

100% Best Times 
Valentina, Lily, Mia

New Time Standards
SwimBC Divisional Championships 
Valentina - 200m Butterfly
Lily - 200m Breaststroke, 50m Breaststroke (long course)

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Our team had a very successful training camp in Phoenix over spring break! We had 15 Hurricanes swimmers attend along with 4 Chinook swimmers for the camp. We also trained with 16 swimmers from Squamish and their coach Kelly! 

We trained outdoors short course yards and long course metres throughout the camp with doubles all but one day. 16 workouts in 10 days, about 2.5 weeks of training in 1.5 weeks. A big aerobic boost and a great opportunity to improve training habits! The swimmers put in well over 100,000 yards/metres during the camp! 

I can't say enough about all of the swimmers on the trip. They were often very tired but once they got moving in the next practice they rose to the occasion every time! We really did not have any workouts were I wasn't impressed by the effort of our swimmers. Our more experienced swimmers swam to fast times over and over despite the extra stress on their bodies through the camp. We had a large number of first time training camp swimmers who all did a great job as well. It was a lot of swimming and a lot of challenging workouts that they stepped up for every day!

The swimmers also did a few activities around their training. We did a big team hike up Camelback Mountain and a small team hike up Hole in the Rock. The one afternoon off we headed to Sedona to check out the beautiful landscape and take a scenic hike up to soldier's pass caves. The swimmers also enjoyed a few American stops like In n'Out, Chick-fil-A, Target and last night treats at The Yard Milkshake Bar. These camps are such a huge opportunity for the team to grow closer and it was so great to see everyone working and living together throughout the camp!

We had fantastic chaperones! A big thank you to Eddie and Sherry who were overly organized and ready to help with anything that was asked of them! They did a great job of meals and managing 19 swimmers in our big airbnb. 

We had some travel complications on the way home with our original flight canceled, meaning a lot of extra time at the airport as well as waiting for shuttles, vouchers and organizing. We did make the most of it with a bonus nba game and everyone did a great job working through the extra stress. 

These trips are a great learning experience for the swimmers. It gives them a chance to see how much they are truly capable of in the pool as they rise up to meet the challenges presented to them each day. They also learn to take care of themselves away from the pool, valuable skills for swim meets. There was a lot of excitement but the bedtimes got earlier each day for the most part as the swimmers recognized the need for rest. We had a couple swimmers who came down with fevers as well but they worked through it well. Overall we were very happy with how the swimmers handled themselves, a very polite and responsible group!

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The last Western Championships was a great experience for our team with impressive swimming against the top competition on this side of the country! Hollyburn was represented by eight swimmers, the most ever for our club at the meet and everyone was a part of our strong results! 

Bodie had an excellent meet, racing in finals in three of his events - 100m Backstroke, 100m Butterfly and 200m Butterfly. Bodie had a big drop in his 100m Butterfly racing to a time of 57.00 in the final with his fastest second half! Bodie had our most exciting race of the meet on the last night fighting for a silver medal in the 200m Butterfly! 

Valentina also raced in three finals - 200m Breaststroke, 100m Breaststroke and 50m Breaststroke. After missing Provincials and being out of the water she showed a lot of speed and raced at a very high level just off her best times which was very impressive! 

Burton had an outstanding 100m Breaststroke, continuing to lower his time and really stepping up in finals! Burton was just over his best times in his other four events, racing to very strong prelims times. 

Ashton qualified two weeks ago at Provincials and did a really good job of racing to a best time in his individual event the 200m Individual Medley! His swim moved him up the rankings to a second swim in finals which was a big accomplishment waiting to race his own event on the fourth day of the meet! Ashton also did an outstanding job on our relays, racing to best times leading off the 4x200m Free Relay and 4x100m Medley Relay! 

Brooke was very impressive in her 50m Butterfly, racing just over her best time! She also had an incredible 100m Butterfly on our 4x100m Mixed Medley Relay, racing well under her best time! 

Rafael had a solid 50m Breaststroke and really stepped up on our relays, leading off the 4x100m Freestyle relay for a best time and bettering his times on all four relays! 

Bayden did a really good job in his 200m Breaststroke, racing his fastest time of the season with a very strong first 100m! 

Rohin showed a lot of speed in his 50m Backstroke, swimming fast enough to be under his best time and make a second swim! 

As always our relays were really fun and really fast! Everyone who raced on our relays stepped up for their teammates and used the extra energy to race to fast times! 

These meets are very hard to race to best times, if you look through the results over 75% of the races are over their lifetime bests. It's a big skill to learn to race to bests in prelims so that you have the opportunity to rise up in finals. Our team did an outstanding job of racing throughout the meet and moved up the rankings in most of our events! 

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We had a lot of success at this year's SwimBC Winter Provincial Championships! Our swimmers raced at their best in almost all of their races with a few huge breakthroughs as well! As always our relays were very exciting as the swimmers stepped up for their teammates!

Congratulations to Ashton who raced to his first Canadian Western Championships time in the 200m Individual Medley. Ashton put together a great race with a huge push in his fly and back to start the event!

Burton raced to new Western time standards in his 50m Butterfly, 100m Freestyle and 50m Breaststroke! Burton's time in the 50m Breaststroke was fast enough to race under the Canadian Trials standard for the first time as well as winning a bronze medal and setting a new club record! 

Bodie raced to his second Canadian Trials standard in the 100m Butterfly with outstanding speed off the blocks to race to a bronze medal out of lane 1 in finals! Bodie also had a huge effort in the 200m Butterfly to lower his time by two seconds and race to a silver medal! 

Racing at her first Provincials, Olivia was very impressive switching to long course and going faster than her short course converted times! She made finals in the 50m Butterfly and broke a very fast team record in finals!

Brooke was very good racing to fast prelims times in all of her events and narrowly missing finals. She also had a great 50m Freestyle and was very fast leading off the 4x100m Free Relay!

Freddy was right on his bests throughout the meet using his speed off the blocks and energy on relays to make a big difference! 

Rafael was very strong in his butterfly events and stepped up on relay teams as well! 

Bayden was getting faster throughout the meet and ended with a very solid 50m Breaststroke on the last day!

It was a strange provincials with a few swimmers fighting sickness through the meet. Both George and Stella raced really well before they had to end their meet early. 

Our team does a very good job of stepping up on relays, they are a big part of our team culture and can help show swimmers what speeds they are capable of. Noah and Kinsey raced as relay only swimmers and did a great job helping our teams move up the rankings! Rohin had his best swim on the relay as well. Ashton had a fantastic swim on the 4x200m Freestyle Relay and everyone was up for racing under their bests on the 4x100m and 4x50m Relays! Our 15-17 boys teams finished 6th in the 4x50m Medley Relay (Freddy, Rafael, Bodie, Burton) and 7th in the 4x50m Freestyle Relay (Noah, Rafael, Bodie, Freddy)! 

100% Best Times 
Olivia, Stella

Medalists 
Burton - Bronze 50m Breaststroke
Bodie - Silver 200m Butterfly, Bronze 100m Butterfly

New Team Records 
12&under Girls 
32.32 - 50m Butterfly - Olivia Falls (was Jessica Strong 33.71 2017)
15&over Boys 
30.89 - 50m Breaststroke - Burton Li (was Rafael Wang 31.24 2023)

New Time Standards 
Canadian Western Championships 
Ashton - 200m Individual Medley *1st time standard!
Burton - 100m Freestyle, 50m Breaststroke, 50m Butterfly

Canadian Trials 
Burton - 50m Breaststroke *1st time standard!
Bodie - 100m Butterfly

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It was super nice to see so many young kids participate in te development meet yesterday.  It has been a little while since we saw them race and it was so good for the coaches to see their progress and which skills we saw an improvement and the one we need to reinforce a bit more to be better for our upcoming meets in the Spring. We are hosting a Development Meet on Saturday, April 27 in the afternoon and we will be attending the always fun Whistler Meet on May 25-26, please mark your calendars!

Swim Academy 1: Congratulations to Ramona, Cadence, Sienna, Sarah, Lydia, Roniya, Mila, Amelia, Ethan, Sepand and Sam S. for the participation and completing 50m races keeping their skills together for the whole race (breathing every 3 on free) and even some swimmers using their flip turn and touching 2 hands on breastroke. It was Sam Sheih first swim meet and he did very well.  The swimmers also look good in the relay cheering on each other.

Swim Academy 2: Very good swimming with all best time for the swimmers attending.  High five to swimmer reaching their LMR time. I’m mainly please to see that they all show good skills in 4 strokes.  IM race was so good.

Monsoon: The challenge of this meet was to do 200/400m IM and 200/400m Free combo.  I was so please with the 400m IM (my favorite race to watch-tells me a lot about the quality of the overall work we are doing) swimmers demonstrate the ability to swim 4 strokes with good fundamental skills and turns.  What was also so great was that they all embrace doing it and swim hard.  I was very proud. Same for the 400m free that was swam late at the end of the day, swimmers show a good control of technique but also speed. Keep up the good work guys, pretty impressive last few weeks of racing between the distance time trial, divisional and yesterday!

100% Best Times 
Isa A, Roen B, Ryan B, Ramona B, Joelie C, Maelie C, Cadence C, Emilie C, Sienna EW, Esme F, Mimu J, Tom J, Ethan J, Sarah J, Chelsea L, Lydia L, Raniya M, Hadley M, Pippa M, Ellie P, Lexie P, Scarlett P, Nicolas RT, Dottie R, Maddie R, Sam S, Mila S, Hannah T, Keon T, Nikki T, Olivia W

New Team Records 
10&under Girls 
5:40.25 - 400m Freestyle - Pippa McMillan (was Sidney Clement 5:43.56 2016)
6:15.14 - 400m Individual Medley - Pippa McMillan (was Sidney Clement 6:21.91 2016)

New Time Standards
Lower Mainland Regional Qualifiers
Joelie Cheung - 200m Individual Medley
Maelie Cheung - 200m Individual Medley
Lexie Pang - 200m Individual Medley

SwimBC Divisional Championships
Olivia Falls - 200m Individual Medley
Pippa McMillan - 400m Individual Medley
​​​​​​​Dottie Ridgway - 200m Backstroke

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Divisionals was an exciting meet for our team! It was our most successful Divisionals for new Provincial qualifying races and podium finishes! A fantastic job by each of the 18 swimmers who raced at the meet! 

Olivia was very impressive racing to her first three provincial qualifying times in the 50m Butterfly, 50m Backstroke and 100m Butterfly based on her strong underwater work to start each length! Ashton added six new events to his schedule at provincials with aggressive racing in heats and some strong fine tuning in finals! Stella sprinted to medals in three consecutive races on Saturday, narrowly missing the provincial time in each one! Burton had an impressive start to his racing in the 15&over age group adding four new provincial standards after starting each day with big drops in prelims! Pippa raced as one of the only 10 year olds in the 12&under age group, making finals twice and broke four team records! Hannah built her speed very well in each race leading to big improvements in her breaststroke events and some fast sprinting in backstroke! Kinsey was strong across all events, racing to bests in muliple events! Brooke had big drops in her 200m IM and 400m Freestyle before coming back with an impressive best time in her 100m Freestyle! Lily continues to take off time, beating significant milestones with a 200m Breaststroke under 3:00 and a 100m Freestyle under 1:10! Noah hit best times in all of his freestyle events with great speed on the first half of every race! Emma maintained her speed very well in her 100m and 200m Freestyle events racing to big best times! Bayden's freestyle events were very strong as he pushed hard to best times across three distances! Valentina added the 100m Butterfly to her provincial events racing through the second half with strong breakouts! Rafael had big efforts to hold his speed in both the 200m Freestyle and 100m Butterfly to race to best times and a new event at provincials! Maddie, Emme, Phillipa and Freddy all did a fantastic job racing on relays, helping us score a lot of points and reach the medal podium four times! 

Our relays were again fantastic with a lot of best times. These swims are important to show swimmers what they are capable of and give them confidence for upcoming swim meets. Four relay medals was very exciting and they were all put together by different swimmers really showing our depth at the meet!  

Medalists
Olivia - 12&under - Gold 50m Butterfly, Gold 50m Backstroke, Bronze 100m Butterfly
Ashton - 15&over - Gold 200m Individual Medley, Silver 200m Freestyle, Silver 50m Backstroke
Stella - 13&14 - Silver 100m Breaststroke, Silver 50m Freestyle, Bronze 50m Butterfly
Valentina - 15&over - Gold 100m Butterfly, Bronze 200m Freestyle 
Burton - 15&over - Bronze 400m Individual Medley, Bronze 100m Freestyle
Lily - 13&14 - Silver 50m Breaststroke 
Rafael - 15&over - Silver 100m Butterfly
Noah, Freddy, Ashton, Bayden - Gold - 15&over 4x50m Freestyle Relay 
Phillipa, Stella, Lily, Emma - Silver - 13&14 4x50m Freestyle Relay
Valentina, Kinsey, Stella, Brooke - Bronze - 15&over 4x50m Medley Relay 
Ashton, Kinsey, Rafael, Brooke - Bronze - 15&over Mixed 4x100m Medley Relay

New Team Records 
10&under Girls 
38.88 - 50m Backstroke - Pippa McMillan (was Pippa McMillan 39.82 2024)
1:21.75 - 100m Backstroke - Pippa McMillan (was Stella Harris 1:24.81 2020)
2:49.32 - 200m Backstroke - Pippa McMillan (was Pippa McMillan 2:55.44 2024)
38.01 - 50m Butterfly - Pippa McMillan (was Sidney Clement 38.32 2016)

New Time Standards
SwimBC Provincial Championships 
Olivia Falls - 50m Backstroke, 50m Butterfly, 100m Butterfly *first time qualifier!
Ashton Govier - 100m Freestyle, 200m Freestyle, 400m Freestyle, 50m Backstroke, 100m Backstroke, 200m Individual Medley
Valentina Kolytchev - 100m Butterfly
Burton Li - 100m Freestyle, 200m Freestyle, 50m Backstroke, 400m Individual Medley
Rafael Wang - 100m Butterfly

SwimBC Divisional Championships
Olivia Falls - 200m Backstroke
Emma Johnston - 100m Freestyle
Pippa McMillan - 100m Backstroke
​​​​​​​Hannah Thompson - 50m Backstroke, 200m Breaststroke 

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Our team gained more long course racing experience at the PSW Winter Invitational. 11 swimmers participated with the main goal to set up long course racing at upcoming Provincials and Westerns in March. 

Burton did a fantastic job in his last meet as a 14 year old, setting three team records for the 13-14 age group as well as qualifying his 100m Butterfly for Canadian Western Championships! Burton raced very well in finals Saturday with his 100m Butterfly swim and improving his best 200m Individual Medley result. He was fast off the blocks on Sunday morning with a very strong 100m Breaststroke and narrowly missed Westerns by .03 with a great time of 25.97 in his 50m Freestyle! 

Bodie also swam really well in finals Saturday, narrowly off best times and national time standards in his 200m Individual Medley and 100m Butterfly! He also set a new best 100m Freestyle on Sunday morning! 

Bayden lowered his best times in his 200m Individual Medley, 200m Freestyle and 50m Freestyle!

There were a lot of other strong swims after a slow start on the Saturday morning session. Those break throughs are there are and it is more of a mental game than a physcial one to get to best times. This meet will help swimmers focus as they prepare for fast racing in March at both SwimBC Provincial Championships and Canadian Western Championships! 

New Team Records 
13-14 Boys 
25.97 - 50m Freestyle - Burton Li (was Josh DeCoteau 26.37 2018)
1:01.47 - 100m Butterfly - Burton Li (was Burton Li 1:02.11 2024)
2:21.45 - 200m Individual Medley - Burton Li (was Burton Li 2:22.58 2023)

New Time Standards
Canadian Western Championships 
Burton Li - 100m Butterfly

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We had an incredible Time Trial on Friday night with everyone racing really well! The time trial was run to give swimmers a chance to qualify for Divisionals, gain experience racing distance and get off the blocks this month. Fantastic results all around!

Emma and Pippa both qualified for SwimBC Divisional Championships later this month! Emma had a huge improvement in the 50m Freestyle, needing to go under 30.70, she went under 30 seconds and finished with a time of 29.90! Pippa has been getting closer to her time in the 200m Backstroke all season and she took off six seconds to go well under the time standard and set a new 10&under team record! Both swimmers were ready to race, finishing with all best times and Pippa set another record in the 50m Backstroke! 

Ashton swam a very determined 400m Individual Medley! Needing to take off a second to qualify the event for Provincials, he instead took off over seven seconds to easily qualify with outstanding splits for his fly, back and free! Ashton was also the only swimmer in the race which makes it even more impressive!

Congratulations to all the swimmers who swam either the 400m or 800m Freestyle for the first time! Esme, Olivia, Tom, Pippa, Dottie, Bianca, Hannah, Nikki and Evan all raced the 800m Freestyle and did a fantastic job! Great work by Freya, Holly and Nicolas racing the 400m Freestyle! 

The swimmers raced with a great energy throughout the time trial and it was a really fun evening of swimming for the team! Everyone had some highlights from all the 100% best times to all the new events raced! 

100% Best Times
Maelie C, Olivia F, Freya H, Tom J, Brooke J, Emma J, Phillipa L, Pippa M, Nicolas RT, Dottie R, Maddie R, Lily T, Nikki T, Evan Z, Mia Z

New Team Records 
10&under Girls 
39.82 - 50m Backstroke - Pippa McMillan (was Phillipa Lotz 40.24 2021)
2:55.44 - 200m Backstroke - Pippa McMillan (was Stella Harris 3:00.29 2020)

New Time Standards 
SwimBC Divisional Championships 
Emma Johnston - 50m Freestyle *first time standard!
Pippa McMillan - 200m Backstroke *first time standard!

SwimBC Provincial Championships 
Ashton Govier - 400m Individual Medley

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Hollyburn was well represented by seven swimmers (and joined by one Chinook swimmer) at the Edmonton Open Provincial Series! This long course meet had open finals with a final 4 and then A, B and C finals in most events. It was a great opportunity for our swimmers to improve their long course racing skills while they set up for big performances in March at SwimBC Provincial Championships and Canadian Western Championships. Everyone took part in finals and had successful swims setting up our long course season very well!

Noah raced to a best time in 100m Butterfly while showing a lot of speed in his freestyle events! Ashton took off for a new provincial time in the 200m Backstroke and had a big drop in the 200m Freestyle, in both races he maintained his stroke rate through every 50 and got into a great racing mode! Ava used her great breakouts to her advantage and improved in both of her finals! Brooke really came through in her finals, always improving from her morning swims and racing to a big best time in the 200m Butterfly! Burton had a very busy meet, racing in heats and finals in all eight of his events, including a swim off in the 200m Breaststroke! It was an impressive meet for Burton across all three days while he also improved his team records in the 100m Breaststroke and 100m Butterfly! Kinsey raced to bests in the 100m Breaststroke and 100m Butterfly! She also finished the meet with a very well swum 200m Breaststroke! Bodie really stepped up in finals, racing to a new westerns time in the 100m Backstroke and a big best times in his 50m events!

Valentina attended the meet as a member of the SwimBC Provincial Team. It was a great experience for her working with other coaches and racing with the fastest age group swimmers in our province! Valentina raced her breaststroke events at a high level for this point in our training, she got to race in the big Final 4 final each night in those events! 

The Pursuit group will join the Typhoon, Tsunami and Monsoon swimmers at our time trial on Friday and then race long course again this weekend at the PSW Meet! After that training for performances at their top meets! 

New Team Records
13-14 Boys
1:09.98 – 100m Breaststroke – Burton Li (was Burton Li 1:10.36 2023)
1:02.11 - 100m Butterfly - Burton Li (was Burton Li 1:02.12 2023)

New Time Standards

Western Canadian Championships
Bodie Simard - 100m Backstroke

SwimBC Provincials 
Ashton Govier - 200m Backstroke

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 more photos​​​​​​​

Racing in mid-January after the Christmas break is always a little challenging but gives the swimmers plenty of opportunity to learn and is a great starting point for the new year. The meet helps swimmers manage themselves through a two or three day meet while getting feedback to take back to training. We had a lot of really strong swimming at the meet and will use this meet for a building block for our upcoming training and competition schedule.

Congratulations to Roen and Nicolas who were competing in their first LMR Meet! Both boys did an incredible job throughout the weekend racing many of their events for the first time and really stepping up on our older relays! 

Despite the short time since our training break we exciting results at the meet! Hannah put together a really strong 100m Breaststroke to qualify for SwimBC Divisional Championships for the first time! Oliva maintained her spped in the 100m Butterfly to add her first 100m event for Divisonal Champs! Calais had a lot of really big improvements in her 100m and 200m events! Emme was very fast in her 50m events! Chelsea held her speed very well in her 200m Freestyle! Pippa is really closing in on the 200m Backstroke team record! Nikki's strong technique led her to a lot of big improvements! The meet was a great learning experience for the Monsoon swimmers as they focused on improving their walls, maintaining body position and kicking through every race. They also worked on proper warm ups, taking responsibility for knowing their schedule, warming down after each swim and not asking dozens of questions! 

For swimmers in Pursuit and Typhoon this was a training meet and a focus on longer swims. The meet started off with a distance session on Friday morning. It was great to see big improvements by Ashton, Emma and Phillipa while Maddie and Lily completed their first 800s! In the last session after a lot of racing for most of our swimmers we focused on the 400m Freestyle with a lot of big efforts. A few swimmers really swam the race well, the main focus at this point in our training. Rafael was strong throughout and raced to a new Divisional time! Stella, Emma, Valentina and Phillipa also swam the races very well! Olivia completed her first 400m Freestyle while both Maddie and Lily took off a ton of time! Ashton, Brooke, Dottie, Lily and Mia all had big improvements in their 400m Individual Medley swims! There was solid racing following through with good race strategy throughout the meet for our older swimmers. As we add more training the speed will get easier and those race strategies will really help performances.

Many swimmers had a big schedule with up to 14 races throughout the weekend! It was great to see so many big efforts throughout the weekend especially on the last day when so many swimmers stepped up on relays racing to best ever times which should build a lot of confidence for their upcoming swim meets. A few of our very fast relay splits - Roen (34.9 50 free!), Noah (24.8 50 free!), Emma (30.1 50 free!), Valentina (32.8 50 brst and 27.7 50 free!), George (26.5 50 free twice!), Maddie (36.6 50 fly!), Nicolas (36.3 50 free!) and Mia (32.2 50 free!). We also had a lot of relay leadoff best times - way to go Noah, Emma, George and Pippa! Relays are a great chance for swimmers to feel new speeds, step up for their teammates and surprise themselves with what they are capable of! Really happy to see how well our swimmers stepped up. 

Phone charges include: Ashton, Stella, Emma, George and Burton. So something we still need to work on. 

Overall this meet was a great experience for our team. Everyone should feel motivated to commit to training over the next few weeks as we have many big meets coming up!

100% Best Times
Emme, Chelsea, Nicolas

66+% Best Times
Roen, Olivia, Freya, Emma, Dottie, Maddie, Nikki, Mia

New Team Records
13-14 Boys
2:33.43 – 200m Breaststroke – Burton Li (was Bayden Smith 2:33.60 2023)
15&over Girls 
1:07.49 - 100m Individual Medley - Valentina Kolytchev (was Valentina Kolytchev 1:07.86 2023)

New Meet Records 
13 Boys - 27.97 - 50m Backstroke - George Kingdon
14 Boys - 59.88 - 100m Butterfly - Burton Li 
14 Boys - 25.32 - 50m Freestyle - Burton Li
14 Boys - 1:08.44 - 100m Breaststroke - Burton Li

New Time Standards

SwimBC Divisionals 
Olivia Falls - 100m Butterfly
Ashton Govier - 400m Individual Medley
Stella Harris - 200m Backstroke
Rohin Mountstevents - 200m Butterfly
Hannah Thompson - 100m Breaststroke - 1st qualifying time!
Rafael Wang - 400m Freestyle

SwimBC Provincials 
George Kingdon - 200m Backstroke