Johnson, Van Herk Commit To OUA Swim Teams

Two local swimmers, Riley Johnson and Shania Van Herk, have committed to compete with OUA swim teams next Fall.

Both swimmers currently compete with the Blenheim Blast swim team.

Johnson, a Chatham-Kent Secondary School graduate, will hit the pool with the Laurentian University Voyageurs.

“I am very excited to swim varsity,” says Johnson, who will study concurrent education with outdoor adventure leadership in hopes of becoming a teacher.

“I am looking forward to increasing my training hours and hopefully improve my performance in the pool. Head Coach John Van Herk has been so supportive in pushing to persist through challenges and frustrations in the pool,” continued Johnson about her Blenheim Blast coach. “He is ultimately the person who has helped me regain the confidence to inspire me to swim varsity.”

“I am very optimistic and excited about next year.”

Van Herk, a Ursuline College Chatham grad, whose father John is the Blast head coach, will compete with the Brock University Badgers.

“It’s an amazing opportunity to be able to swim at the university level,” says Shania Van Herk. “My goal since I was young has been to make the Olympics and now that I’m swimming at the university level it will give me the opportunity to chase after my dreams. I’m excited to start a new chapter in my swimming career.”

“I chose Brock because I felt more at home there,” says Van Herk, who also had the opportunity to attend Guelph. “Both schools are great schools and they both had my program, so it was more just deciding on what I thought was best for me,” said Van Herk who will study kinesiology.

Shania’s sister Justine Van Herk is entering her third year as a member of the University of Guelph swim team.