A Richmond Rapids contingent of 39 athletes brought home 29 medals from the recent Provincial AAA Short Course Championships in Victoria.
The meet represented the end of the short course season and the culmination of training since September. Across all age groups combined, the Rapids finished with 135 individual swims and 18 relays ranked in the top 16. This included 22 individual medals, and seven relay medals to finish fourth overall in the club standings.
Sam Pei earned bronze in the 400 Freestyle, but was a threat for the podium in five other events — finishing fourth each time. Alex Ball came in second overall in the 50 freestyle. Also on the sprint side, Wendy Yang won gold in the 50 free, backstroke, and butterfly. Her 100 fly swim earned her a bronze.
Both Ryan Murray and Dimitri Volchkov won the 200 backstroke in their age group, while Will MacDougall earned a bronze in 11&Under category.
Amanda McCallum defended her 50 and 100 meter backstroke titles, while earning bronze in the 200 IM. Jessy Barton-Jensen also came home with third place medals in the 50 and 100 back. Joshua Quon earned a silver in the 50 backstroke after a fantastic start from deep in lane eight.
The club was also strong in the breaststroke events.
Jackson Xie won the senior boys 50 meters. Serena Xue earned a gold, silver, and bronze in the 50, 200, and 100 distances, respectively. Rich Rakchtis was on the podium for all three events as well, with gold in the 50 and 200, and silver in the 100.
For relays, the Girls 12 and under 4x50 Free (Charlie Ford, Jessy Barton-Jensen, Isabella Villasenor, Lily Douglas), and 4x50 Medley (Barton-Jensen, Douglas, Samantha McCallum, Ford) both earned bronze medals. This broke a long-running medal drought for the Rapids in the 12 and under girls category, and set a team record in the 4x50 Free.
The senior girls both scored two bronze medals as well, also in the 4x50 Free (Devon Mark, Wendy Yang, Serena Xue, Amanda McCallum) and the 4x50 Medley (Dini McIver, Xue, Mark, Yang). The two senior girls relays and the 14&Under 4x100 Medley also set club records.
On the men’s side, the senior boys (Alex Ball, Michael Ge, Jerry Liu, Adrian Hsing) team finished third in the 4x50 Free. The 13-14 Boys crew (Matthew Crawford, Samuel Pei, Artur Yushko, Ethan Chan) was the most successful of the bunch, earning silver in the 4x50 Medley and gold in the 4x50 Freestyle.
Other club records broken included a pair by Charlie Ford, beating her own 800 freestyle and breaking a 10-year-old record in the 400. Amanda McCallum had three herself: the 200 free, 100 backstroke, and 200 IM. Isabella Villasenor, in her first provincial championships, earned one in the 100 fly. Wendy Yang reset her 50 and 100 backstroke records. Serena Xue earned four records, three in breaststroke and one in the 400 IM. Ethan Chan also accomplished a pair in the 200- and 400-meter freestyles.
Adding to the success in rankings, Rapids athletes achieved new qualification standards. Matthew Crawford qualified for Western Nationals for the first time, scoring cuts in all three backstroke events. Serena Xue and Wendy Yang both added Canadian National Trials cuts, increasing the number of swims they are allowed at Olympic Trials next month.
In addition to competing at provincials, the club is also prepping for upcoming events in Toronto.
Alex Ball, Serena Xue, Wendy Yang, Nic Dekker, Emily De Boer and Jonathan Dieleman will be competing at Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Trials. Teams for the Canadian Olympic and Junior National Team will be chosen based on the results of this meet.
Additionally, Amanda McCallum, Ethan Chan, and Richard Rakchtis were selected to represent Team BC in this year’s Provincial Prospects Camp. To be selected, they had to be ranked in the Top 10 nationally in one of six stroke categories. Coach Drew McClure was also named as a staff member.
