Blast Swim Away With 24 Medals

The Blenheim Blast Swim Team swam away with 24 medals from the Nothers Fall Invitational hosted by the London Aquatic Club at the Canada Games Aquatic Centre, Nov 23-25. The medal count included 8 gold, 10 silver and 6 bronze medals.

15 year old Shania Van Herk swam to two gold medal performances in the women’s 15 year old 200m backstroke and 100m butterfly. Shania shaved over two seconds off her previous times in the 220m backstroke finals to set a new personal best time of 2:24.91. Shania won gold in the 100m butterfly in a time of 1:08.87, and also won four silver medals in the 50m freestyle (28.98), 100m freestyle (1:01.26), 100m backstroke (1:07.85) and 200m I.M. (2:30.05).

13 year old Brendan Van Herk also swam away with two gold medals in the 13 year old boys’ 50m breaststroke (40.06) and 100m butterfly (1:09.95)/ Brendan won silver in the 50m butterfly in a time of 32.02 seconds, and secured two bronze medals in both the 50m backstroke (32.74) and 100m backstroke ( 1:09.87) events. Brendan had four other top ten finishes at the meet, placing fifth in the 50m freestyle, seventh in both the 100m backstroke and 200m backstroke, and eighth in the 100m freestyle.

15 year old River Pfaff dominated in the men’s’ 15 year old breaststroke events, winning gold in both the 50m breaststroke (35.43) and 200m breaststroke (2:48.21) events. River won silver in the 100m breast in a new personal record of 1:16.35. River also won silver in the 50m backstroke (33.97) and 50m butterfly (30.93) events. He had three other top ten performances, finishing fifth in the 100m butterfly and eighth in both the 50m and 100m freestyle events.

Rain Pfaff (13) also swam away with gold in the girls’ 13 year old 400m I.M. in a personal best time of 5:50.50. Rain swam to three silver medals in the 800m freestyle (10:38.03), 50m backstroke (34.44), and 100m backstroke (1:13.44). Rain also won bronze in the 50m freestyle (30.33) and had five other swims with top ten performances. She placed fourth in both the 100m freestyle and 50m breaststroke, fifth in the 200m backstroke and was eighth in both the 100m breaststroke and butterfly events.

11 year old Grace Hansen topped the podium in the 11 year old girls’ 50m butterfly event in a time of 38.04 seconds. Grace raced to two bronze medal finishes in the 200m (3:05.06) and 400m (6:27.65) I.M. events, and placed sixth in the 400m freestyle.

Other top ten finishes included Alexandria Hall who swam to a sixth place finish in the girls 14 year old 400 I.M. , and eighth in the 50m backstroke. 9 year old Emma Pegg was fourth in the 10 & under girls’ 50m butterfly and placed eighth in the 50m backstroke. 15 year old Sophia Maclean placed seventh in the 50m breaststroke and ninth in the 50m backstroke. Mackenzie Rajki (15) placed eighth in both the 50m freestyle and 100m butterfly.

The team will travel to Sarnia next weekend for the third S.E.A.L. Meet of the year.