The Ladysmith Chemainus Orcas Swim Club was well represented at the final big meet of the season which brought together the top swimmers from across the Island.
A mighty contention of five swimmers including Massimo Dagostini, Anna Fairweather, Colton Gonzales, Noah Herle and Shane Valic travelled to Victoria during the first weekend in June to compete at the Vancouver Island Regional LC Championships hosted at the Saanich Commonwealth Place pool.
Ladysmith’s Aiden Jeffries and Aileen Humphreys, who are both with the Nanaimo Riptides, also made the trip to race against some of the best from the area.
While the majority of the local swimmers’ training and competing is done in a 25 metre pool, this competition saw them race in a larger 50 metre pool against swimmers from 10 other clubs on the Island.
Anna Fairweather got up on the starting blocks an impressive 14 times as she raced to six silver medals (100 freestyle, 200 freestyle, 50 breaststroke, 50 butterfly, 100 butterfly and 200 Individual Medley) and one bronze (50 freestyle). She also added a fourth in the 100 backstroke.
Equally impressive was Shane Valic who touched the wall for silver (50 butterfly) and moved up three places from the prelims to sneak in for bronze in the 50 freestyle, out-touching his competition for the final podium spot by one one-hundredth of a second.
He also added two fifths (100 freestyle and 50 breaststroke).
Valic graduates from Ladysmith Secondary School this month and expects to try out for the University of Victoria varsity swim team in the fall.
Aileen Humphreys brought home gold (200 breaststroke), one silver (100 breaststroke) and a bronze (50 breaststroke)
Aiden Jeffries also raced to bronze in the 200 breaststroke as well as a personal best in the distance.
Colton Gonzales proved his prowess in the sprint distance capturing two fifth place finishes (50 freestyle and 50 butterfly)
Massimo Dagostini achieved best times in all seven of his events with his top placing being in the 200 backstroke where he swam to 10th.