The Richmond Rapids made a splash at the Pacific Sea Wolves Fall Invitational in South Surrey.
Over three sessions, 72 Rapids swimmers competed in 100m free, 100m breast, 100m back, 100m fly, 200m free, 200m IM and 50m free events.
In the women’s 100m free, National girls Amanda McCallum, Janine Low, and Lily Douglas took second, fifth and ninth respectively in the 15 & over category.
Men’s 100 free included a 6.53 second drop to place Gary Du in eighth in the 10&U category. A 2.30 second drop by Will MacDougall earned him fourth among 13-14 year olds, while Matthew Meuleman, Matthew Crawford, and Ethan Chan placed third, seventh and eighth respectively in 15-and-over.
The Rapid’s girls 100m breaststroke participants had several top finishes. Avery Ritchie was fifth in the 10&U category, a first-place finish by Sarah Crawford in the 13-14 year old category, and a first and second place sweep by McCallum and Christina Tan in the 15-and-over.
In the same event, the boys held their own, with Gary Du placing seventh in 10&U, MacDougall and William Li placing fourth and 13th, and Kevin Li placing fourth, Matthew Crawford seventh, Meuleman 10th, and Tony Sun 12th for the 15-and-over.
The women’s 100m back included a 10- second drop by Erica Low, a 1.98 second improvement and 6th place finish by Sarah Crawford, and McCallum placing first overall.
In the men’s event, David Maibaum was eighth in the 11-12-year-old category with a time of 1:15.60, MacDougall placed fifth for 13-14 year olds, Matthew Crawford placed second overall with a best time, and Ethan Chan was sixth.
After the short break came the 200m free. Avery Ritchie came ninth in the 10 & U category, Sarah Crawford placed 12th with a 3.64 second drop, and McCallum was second.
For the boys, Gary Du dropped 14.99 seconds to come eighth. William Li fought for an eighth place finish as well, improving by 3.41 seconds and snagging a bell-ringer prize. Meuleman, Ethan Chan, and Matthew Crawford took first, fourth and fifth places in their age category.
Finishing up a long day one was the 100m fly. Sarah Crawford swam a best time to place eighth, while McCallum and Douglas took second and fourth places. Du and MacDougall just snagged best times, placing fifth and seventh. The senior boys, Crawford, Chan & Meuleman placed fifth, sixth and seventh, with Ethan swimming his first best time of the weekend.
Sunday morning began with the 200m individual medley.
Sarah Crawford went another best time to finish fourth. McCallum, Douglas, and Angela Zhuo placed first, fourth, and ninth. Zhuo did so in a best time finish. For the boy’s IM, MacDougall, Bryan Zhou, and Mingjun all enjoyed best times to place third, fifth, and 10th for the 13-14 year olds.
Rounding out the meet with a strong fifth-place finish, Avery Ritchie swam her 50 free in a 34.80.
Sarah Crawford swam herself to sixth with a best time of 29.26. Together, Low, McCallum and Zhuo took second, third and sixth in the 15-and-over category. Du placed sixth with a 36.23. Zhou and MacDougall placed sixth, and 11th, all going best times. Meuleman finished fifth, matching his previous best time. Kevin Li finished seventh with a 25.75.
McCallum and McDougall finished the meet as the Rapids top point producers with 127 and 100 respectively. Richie (55) and Du (76) enjoyed standout performances with 12th or better in all their events.
Du, Sarah Crawford, Ken Stroud, James Kwaksistala, and Kingston Stone enjoyed 100 percent best times. Merina Lau, Claire Yang, Joseph Yeh, and Zhou did the same swimming in session three only.
The club’s biggest improvement of the weekend was Winston Stone dropping nearly 39 seconds off his previous best times.
