The Richmond Rapids enjoyed their best showing in club history at the B.C. "AAA" Long Course Championships, placing second overall and coming within a top eight finish of winning it all.
The Rapids finished Thursday's finals session in seventh overall, and slowly started to climb up the rankings, due to huge efforts from their athletes.
Morgan Mark, who now swims for the University of Hawaii, claimed four medals for herself, three in the freestyle disciplines. Three 11-year-old Rapids distinguished themselves, as Matthew Crawford successfully defended his 100 backstroke title from short course; Jeremy Fung earned his first provincial medal in the 1500, and Dini McIver walked away with two medals from her provincials debut.
The Boys 14 and under relay team won all three contests - a feat that this group of swimmers has been able to do several times. The Boys U12 team were able to bring home three bronze medals to add to the collection.
As the meet progressed, the top five teams changed places after nearly every event, regularly with fewer than 50 points separating first from fifth. It was a monstrously dramatic Sunday finals, with the Rapids swimmers making a huge push to put the team at the top of the listings.
"This was the craziest session I've ever witnessed," says coach Alex Pettifer. "In all my years with BC swimming, I've never seen tighter competition."
The impressively enthusiastic Rapids cheering section was attempting to put as much effort into their shouting as their teammates were putting into their races, and elevated the atmosphere of an already climactic finals.
What does this mean for next year? Coming so close to victory has only made the club hungrier to be at the top, to continue chasing what no Rapids team has ever done - finishing as provincial team champions. Clearly the club has the speed to accomplish the task.
"It will take a cleaner meet," says coach Drew McClure. "There were missed opportunities all over the place. Our first step should be racing harder in prelims and having more Rapids in finals. It's clear that all of our athletes step up at night - that's not the issue. We just need more of them with a lane. That's the goal for next year."
Medalists for all age groups include: 200 IM: Jerry Liu (Gold), Kevin Ye (Silver), Nic Dekker (Gold). 400 IM: Max Schaffler (Gold). 100 Backstroke: Matthew Crawford (Gold), Adrian Hsing (Silver), Jerry Liu (Bronze). 200 Backstroke: Adrian Hsing (Silver).
100 Freestyle: Brian Yu (Gold), Morgan Mark (Silver).
200 Freestyle: Morgan Mark (Silver).
400 Freestyle: Morgan Mark (Bronze), Brian Yu (Silver). 1500 Freestyle: Jeremy Fung (Gold).
100 Breaststroke: Dini McIver (Silver), Kevin Ye (Gold), Brandon Crawford (Bronze), Nic Dekker (Bronze).
200 Breaststroke: Dini McIver (Bronze), Serena Xue (Bronze), Kevin Ye (Gold), Michael Ge (Bronze).
100 Butterfly: Matthew Crawford (Bronze), Cathy Ye (Silver), Morgan Mark (Bronze), Jerry Liu (Bronze), Nic Dekker (Silver). 200 Butterfly: Matthew Crawford (Gold), Nic Dekker (Silver).
4x100 Free Relay: Boys 12&U A (Brian Yu, Matthew Crawford, Jeremy Fung, Ethan Chan) Silver; Boys 14&U A (Jerry Liu, Max Schaffler, Adrian Hsing, Kevin Ye) Gold.
4x200 Free Relay: Boys 12&U A (Brian Yu, Matthew Crawford, Jeremy Fung, Ethan Chan) Silver; Boys 14&U A (Kevin Ye, Arvin Chua, Jerry Liu, Max Schaffler) Gold.
4x100 Medley Relay: Boys 12&U A (Matthew Crawford, Jeremy Fung, Brian Yu, Ethan Chan) Silver; Boys 14&U A (Jerry Liu, Kevin Ye, Max Schaffler, Arvin Chua) Gold.
