Johnson Leads Wallaceburg Swimmers
Wallaceburg Tartans swimmer Chelsey Johnson was the top individual finisher for the only local school to compete in the 2014 OFSAA swimming championships this week in Brantford, Ontario.
The Junior girl came in 5th in the 50m backstroke, touching the wall in 35.96.
The Tartans sent seven swimmers to OFSAA this year, each reaching the finals in at least one of their events. According to veteran swimmer Jack Cavanagh, who competed in the senior boys relay, and is the only OFSAA swimming gold medallist in school history, Wallaceburg’s results at OFSAA speak to the strength of their school’s program.
“I thought everyone on the team swam great, we had a lot of very committed swimmers who worked hard all year and it showed in the pool,” said Cavanagh. “The fact that we were able to send seven swimmers from such a small school and have every swimmer get to compete in one of the finals, it just shows you how great our team and coaches really are. Every swimmer swam close to their personal best or beat it. Every one from our team that got to swim at OFSAA really stepped up to the plate and performed amazingly,” he continued.
Shane Outridge, a senior, had his best finish at OFSAA in the 100m freestyle, finishing 7th after swimming 1:00.36, and was 15th in the Senior boys 50m freestyle with a time of 26.86. Overall, Outridge made the finals in three races.
Dylan DePooter, swimming in the Junior boys division, finished 7th in the 50m butterfly, with a time of 31.54.
Senior girl Kate DeKoning was 14th in the 50m freestyle in a time of 31:28
Senior boy David Metayer was 11th in the 100m breaststroke, touching in 1:17.79 seconds. In the 100m IM, Metayer set a personal best time of 1:09.37 to finish 15th.
The Senior Boys 4x50m medley relay team of Shane Outridge, David Metayer, Jack Cavanagh, and Jared Floin also showed strong, finishing 11th, completing the race in 2:09.93.
After the first day, Wallaceburg sat 39th out of 220 teams with 149 points overall. After the final race, Wallaceburg finished 42nd overall with 228 points, with the girls team finishing 84th, and Wallaceburg’s boys finishing 34th.