Young swimmers from across the Okanagan-Similkameen made their way to Princeton over the weekend for a fun day of swimming competition.
The Princeton Kokanee Swim Team hosted its annual TRY Meet at the Princeton Centennial Pool on May 31. Over 110 swimmers aged four to 18-years-old from Princeton, Keremeos, Kamloops, Kelowna, Penticton and Merritt participated in the full-day event that provided new swimmers from all teams to learn more about swim meets.
The Princeton pool is 25 yards instead of 25 metres, making the event an unofficial meet, as the race times were unable to be recorded under the British Columbia Summer Swimming Association statistics. However, as the first meet of the year, the Kokanee Swim Team said it was great practice for the swimmers as well as the parents, coaches and volunteers.
"Forty-nine of our swimmers took part in the meet, competing in an impressive 189 individual races and swimming a combined total of 10,000 yards," Kokanee Swim Team coach Jonah Yurkowski said. "The team spirit was incredible, with swimmers cheering each other on and celebrating one another's achievements."
The meet included a variety of events, such as a 4 x 50 mixed medley relay and breaststroke, free, back, fly and kick races. A golden pool noodle championship 4 x 50 free-style relay wrapped up the full slate of events.
Yurkowski noted that returning Kokanee swimmers had a great day with plenty of personal best times while new swimmers were also just as impressive.
"Many athletes jumped in for their very first swim meet, and it was amazing to see so many strong first-time performances," he said. "Every swimmer gave it their all, and we couldn't be prouder of how they represented the Kokanee club."
Swimmers, parents coaches and volunteers ended the day with a barbecue full of burgers, hot dogs, chips and drinks.
"We had a fantastic turnout of volunteers to make the day run smoothly and we are grateful for everyone who generously gave their time to help with setup, take down, barbecuing and working on the pool deck," Kokanee Swim Team stated. "We also had support from the Town of Princeton who provided life guards for the event and the use of the events trailer for tables, chairs and tents."
Kokanee Swim Team also added that the meet was a fun day for everyone involved and a great event for swimmers and parents.
"Thank you to the volunteers who made it happen and to the Town of Princeton for their support," they stated.
