Rapids thrive in friendly waters at West Coast Open

The Richmond Rapids played host to swim teams from both sides of the border teams at the annual West Coast Open meet at Watermania. 

With most of the Rapids swimmers now in the final stages of the season, the coaches saw a lot of well-executed tactics and skill maintenance by both the senior and junior development athletes. 

The 200-meter events were particularly successful for the host club. Out of 49 top-three finishes, 19 of them were over this distance.

The boys had a particularly good grasp on the 200s, especially the butterfly. Grabbing gold for the team in the were Matthew Crawford and William MacDougall. Matthew Meuleman placed second in the event, with Ethan Chan and Liam Pearce placing third in their respective age category. 

MacDougall had an exciting weekend for himself as he also placed top three in four freestyle events. 

The 200m breaststroke brought out the best in female and male competitors. Amanda McCallum, Adelina Pei, Jaiden Siu, and Nicolaas Dekker all placed first in their respective categories. 

The Rapids athletes were also able to hit top speed, as they put up great results in the sprint events. 

Janine Low and McCallum both raced hard to win the 100 freestyle, while Tiger Chen swept the sprint breaststroke events — capturing the 50 and the 100 events. 

The boys 12-to-13-year-old 100m fly was particularly exciting as the top-three spots were all taken by Rapids swimmers — Mingjun He, William MacDougall and Bryan Zhou in that order.

Full list of West Coast Open medalists are:

Ethan Chan – 200m free (1^st), 200m fly (3^rd), 400m IM (2^nd).

Tiger Chen – 200m back (3^rd), 50m breast (1^st), 100m breast (1^st).

Howie Chu – 50m Breast (2^nd).

Matthew Crawford – 200m free (2^nd), 50m back (3^rd), 200m fly (1^st), 400m IM (1^st).

Nicolaas Dekker – 400m free (2^nd), 100m back (2^nd), 200m breast (1^st), 50m fly (1^st).

Mingjun He – 100m fly (1^st), 200m IM (3^rd).

William MacDougall – 50m free (3^rd), 100m free (1^st), 200m free (1^st), 400m free(1^st), 100m fly (2^nd) 200m fly (1^st).

David Maibaum – 200m free (3^rd), 200m back (1^st), 400m IM (2^nd).

Matthew Meuleman – 100m free (2^nd), 400m free (1^st), 200m fly (2^nd).

Liam Pearce – 200m fly (3^rd).

Jaiden Siu – 200m breast (1^st).

Mauricio Soroco – 200m free (3^rd), 200m IM (1^st), 400m IM (3^rd).

Kaixun Sun – 100m breast (3^rd).

Chengqiu Yang – 200m back (3^rd).

Artur Yushko – 100m free (3^rd), 100m back (3^rd).

Bryan Zhou – 400m free (3^rd), 100m fly (3^rd).

Allie Janowicz – 50m free (3^rd), 50m back (3^rd).

Janine Low – 100m free (1^st).

Amanda McCallum – 100m free (1^st), 400m free (1^st), 200m breast (1^st).

Adelina Pei – 400m free (3^rd), 50m breast (1^st), 200m breast (1^st).