THUNDER BAY – SPORTS – This past weekend 70 Thunderbolt swimmers descended on the Lakehead University swimming pool to compete at the Narwhal Regional Swim Meet.
This swim meet provided a huge opportunity for developmental swimmers from 7 clubs across the region to work and compete against each other.
“Our athletes swam awesome!” said assistant Thunderbolt swim coach Casey Leslie. “95% of our swimmers swam best times, it was great to see their surprise after dropping huge amounts of time. Many swimmers will come back to the pool with some new-found confidence and I think that is great for their development,” added Leslie.
The Thunderbolts won a total of 130 medals, 43 gold, 39 silver and 48 bronze.
Many Thunderbolts had outstanding performances:Sierra Bourgeois(8 gold), Samuel Sandoval (7 gold, 1 silver), Ethan VanWeeghal( 5gold,3silver), Sawyer Puumala (4 gold,4 silver), Scott Fay (3 silver 4 bronze),Brock Balabuck( 4 gold,2 silver,2 bronze), Reid Thompson (1 gold,2 silver, 4 bronze), Luca Talarico (1 gold,1 silver, 3 bronze), Leo Fay ( 3 silver,1 bronze), Tye Dobson (1 gold,2 silver,3 bronze), Riley Agar (1 gold, 2 silver,3 bronze), Abby Gignac ( 1 gold,3 silver,3 bronze) and Taylor Brown (4 silver, 2 bronze).
“I am very proud of my races and getting all golds,” said an exuberant Sierra Bourgeois. “I want to keep working hard so when I turn nine I can still win!”
“I had lots of fun swimming and competing with the swimmers. Overall, it was a really cool experience,” added Thunderbolt swimmer Ethan VanWeeghal.
“We really stood out this weekend,” stated an excited coach Leslie. “Our enthusiasm, our numbers and our performance were outstanding. It was great to see how excited the swimmers were racing other swimmers from the region.”
Other Thunderbolt medal winners from the weekend included: Fischer Jackson, Liam Weston, Ben Sunila, Sammy Sebesta, Zach Scollie, Eduardo Sandoval, Dante Martino, Braydon Hrabok, Evander Dunn, Rudy Balabuck, Matthew Foulds, Mairin McCready, Ryah Huver, Ella Hupka, Maggie Chisholm, Addison Pradissitto, Matilda Picard, Seija Erickson, Rachael Brown, Abbi Brown, Samantha Bergamo, Mackenzie Thompson, Marina Anvar, Min Dobson, Molly Hunt
“As a Coach I am so proud of these athletes. Now it’s time to dive back into training and working towards great results again at our Grand Prix Meet in May,” said Coach Leslie.
