VPSC PASS Meet #2- Sunday, December 8th
This past weekend, 86 VPSC Families gave up their Sunday morning to show their team spirit on the pool deck at St. George’s Senior School. Will a pool full a swimmers and the deck covered in volunteers, coaches, and parents, it was a busy event. We had swimmers from Bronze, Silver, Gold, and the Skills groups compete for prizes and best times! Full results will be sent on email and later posted on the website.
Here are some highlights from the event:
Number of swimmers: 86
Number of races: 380
Number of best times: 295
Highlights from Bronze:
● Julie Cheng and Shiloh Man had 25BK times under :30
● Julie Cheng came 4th overall in 25FR
● Sydney Chow, Julie Cheng, Allen Weilin Liu, James Magee, Angelina Bian, and Eva-Rose Furlan all had 25FR times under :30
● Althea Rodomar raced her first 50m events, in 50FR and 50BK
First time racers include:
Ethan Aamodt
Dora Ma
Olivia Ma
Anna Coniucenco
Highlights from Silver:
● Ethan Chan, Erica Cheng, Andy Ding, and Alice Zhang all had 25BR times under :30
● Gabby Gallagher, Miley Wong, and Gabriel Jeon had 50BK times under 1:00
● Eric Chen came 1st overall in 25FR
Highlights from Gold:
● Ryan Bole Yu, Tyler Clogg, Nathan da Cunha, and Natalie Gan all made their 4:00 200IM LMR Time
● Juliette Roberts qualified for LMR Championships in 200IM
Highlights from Skills Groups:
First time racers include:
Ezekiel Yu
Jonathan Yu
Myles Stewart
Kushagra Lall
Thomas Ye
Jake Baang
Thanks to everybody who came out to the event - we had a blast. GO VPSC!!
Spartan Santa LMR
We had 25 swimmers from the Senior Regional, Junior Regional and Youth Regional groups compete at the Chilliwack Spartan Santa LMR last weekend. Many swimmers saw some huge time drops as this was their last meet before the holiday break. These best times come from the three months of hard training that the swimmers have put in both dryland and in the pool. Senior Regional swimmer Ben Nazif dropped 9 seconds in the 200 IM on his way to swimming 100% best times. Nazif also touched the wall in the 50 FR in under 28 seconds for the first time in his swimming career. Brad Huang also finished under 28 seconds in the 50 FR for the first time as well as finishing all of his races in personal bests. Teammates Lucia Pochynok, Sofia Ghilardi, Elizabeth Roberts and David Zhao also swam to 100% best times during their two days of racing.
Great swimming also came from Iona Abolmaesumi, Ava Anderson, Emma Aranda, Guita Brain, Alex Chui, Allan Crawford, Ian Crawford, Aurélien Favre, Mira Jamal, Juno Kim, Pauline Le Billon, Chelsea Phelps, Lucas Triger, Kyle Shang, Mateo Sinasac, Misha Vulic, Anna Wang, Sherwyn Wang and Kate Wood.
Delta Distance LMR Recap
On the afternoon of Sunday, December 1st a group of our Vancouver Pacific Swim Club headed out to the Sungod Recreation Centre in Delta, BC for the Delta Distance LMR. This was a chance for our swimmers to swim the 800 and 1500 Freestyle, and for quite a few of them to swim their first distance event ever! It was a long night at the pool, with our swimmers competing in some of the most challenging events in the sport, but our swimmers arrived with lots of energy and excitement, which put together some great races in the pool!
The first swimmers to hit the water were some of our Junior Provincial swimmers in the 1500 Freestyle. Tristan Govier lead his heat from start to finish, with a best time of over one minute from his previous seasons best! Noah Deschambault put together one of his best races of the 2019/20 season so far, taking off 24 seconds and qualifying for the Swim BC Provincial Championships. Mackenzie Warrington, from the Senior Provincial group, also had a great 1500, racing the distance for the first time ever, also qualifying for the Swim BC Provincial Championships. Swimmers who competed in the 1500 Freestyle for the first time were, Gavin Baker, Alvin Chan (qualified for Swim BC Provincial Championships), Ivan Sun, Ian Cho, Mark Zhitnitsky, Lucas Triger, Briana Chiu, Aminah Shi, Marin Leitch and Lucia Pochynok.
Some of our youngest VPSC swimmers who attended the meet from our Youth Provincial group, showed up to swim their first 800 freestyle, and all did an amazing job. The coaches were blown away by their maturity around getting ready for the race, and how they supported each other throughout the evening. Congratulations to Arthur Lin, Aleph Wang, Alex Liu, Simon Wang, Filip Milosevski, Abu Liu, Ziming Wang, Maria Zhu, Hannah Baang, Joanna Sun, Maja Molyneux, Charlotte MacGowan, Anna Wang, Noelle Deschambault, Mia Horan and Lucy Pashby who all swam the 800 Freestyle for the first time. Great races in the 800 Freestyle also came from Preston Dong, Otis Chan, and Jason Li from the senior side of the program who all qualified for the Swim BC Provincial Championships in the distance event. Ashton Govier, Alex Panos, Josh Warrington, Brian Yoo, Henry Ho, and Katarina Bijelic all posted big best times in the event as well. Congratulations to Alex Chui, Ben Nazif, Richard Sun and Ramon Siytangco who all swam the 800 Freestyle for the first time ever!
Next up for our VPSC swimmers is the Spartan Santa LMR, the Rapids Fast Swim Meet, and JP Fiset Invitational!
GO VPSC GO!
SFU/Gators LMR Recap
The swimmers from the Senior Provincial and Senior Regional side of the program had a great 2 sessions of racing including 100% best times from Brad Huang, Mateo Sinasac and Simon Vargas. Lucas Triger also had a great meet, including a 15 second best time in his 200 Individual Medley. Sabrina Wu showed some grace racing in all her events placing in the top 3 in all of her individual efforts. Congratulations as well to Alex Chui, Ben Nazif, Ramon Siytangco, Mira Jamal, Audrey Peters, Chelsea Phelps, and Lucia Pochynok, who all competed at the meet and swam to one or more best times.
The younger swimmers who competed at the meet from the Youth Regional, Junior Regional, and Youth Provincial program, swam to some amazing results, showing that all their hard work in the pool is really paying off. Highlights from the weekend include Joanna Sun achieving the 200 IM and 100 Breaststroke qualifying standard for the BC Age Group Championships, qualifying her for the championship meet coming up in the spring. Sofia Ghilardi also achieved her first BC Age Group Championships standard in the 50 Freestyle, and is looking to achieve the 200 Individual Medley standard to qualify for the meet. Maja Molyneux was our third swimmer to achieve the BC Age Group Provincial Champs qualifying standard in the 200 Individual Medley, and is now just looking to achieve a second standard to qualify for the meet. Allan Crawford swam his first 100 Butterfly this weekend which is always an exciting moment for any swimmer, with Alex Liu, Anna Wang, and Shane Cho swimming their first 200 backstroke ever. Great swimming also came from Iona Abolmaesumi, Ava Anderson, Guita Brain Mia Horan, Kyle Shang, Elizabeth Roberts, Kate Woods, Anne Zhang, Chase Chong, Filip Milosevski, Lucy Pashby and Maria Zhu.
Next up for the VPSC swimmers is the Delta Distance LMR on December 1st and the Spartan Santa LMR on December 7th and 8th!
UBC Odlum Brown Colleges Cup Recap
As our swimmers prepare for future National level meets, our swimmers performed exceptionally well, earned several personal bests and put up some of the best times in the country at this point in the season.
Caileigh Luis was the top points earner through the weekend, making the A final in the 200 IM, 400 IM, 100 Back and 200 Back. Caileigh place 3rd in the 200 IM, earning VPSC's only medal position through the weekend, and her time of 2:18.06 in the 200 IM was also the second fastest by any VPSC swimmer ever.
Nicolleta Panos was the most active swimmer through the weekend, swimming 15 times between heats, finals and WEST team relays. Her best placing was 11th in the 100 IM, where her time of 1:05.85 established a new 15/16 and Open CLUB RECORD!!!
Alex Turvey had an outstanding meet, qualifying for second swims in all of her events. She was the Freestyle leg of the 4 x 50 Medley Relay that placed 2nd at the meet and beat the UBC Varsity Team! Alex also raced well individually in the spring races, placing 5th in the 50 Free while going substantial personal bests in the 50 Free, 100 Free and 100 Fly.
In her first opportunity racing against university competition, Kate Block performed exceptionally well, particularly on the first day of competition where she went a substantial personal best in the 100 Free, only to follow it up by qualifying for the A final in the 400 Free, where she took off an additional 3 seconds from her best time.
Blake Currie had a solid meet throughout the weekend while being one of the youngest competitors at the meet racing against university swimmers. Blake raced hard in every race against much older competition while going large best times in the 200 Breast and 200 IM.
Benji Eyre and Garnet Currie, as post-secondary students, swam the meet as exhibition swimmers and took advantage of each opportunity to race. This was only Benji's second meet representing VPSC short course (the first being last weekend at our Fall Invite), he has already shown tremendous improvement across all of his races since coming over from Japan, culminating with solid 2:09.43 in the 200 IM and placing 3rd in the B final for the 100 IM. Garnet was 100% best times through the weekend, all of which were done in the heats and shows a great sign for higher level of performances later in the year.
At this point in the year, all of the swimmers performed very well and are off to a great start as the prepare to qualify and compete at the Olympic Trials in April.
Turvey Heading to Pomona College
Graduating VPSC swimmer Alex Turvey will swim for Pomona College in California, starting in September 2020. After success as a summer swimmer with the Vancouver Vikings, Alex joined VPSC when she was 10 years old. She has had a stellar record of achievement with the club, breaking numerous club records, achieving provincial and national podium finishes, medalling in US competitions, as well as reaching finals in the Scottish Senior Open in 2018. In 2017, she represented British Columbia at the Canada Summer Games and brought home three medals. For the coming year, she has qualified to compete in the 2020 Canadian Olympic Trials.
Pomona College in Claremont, California is ranked the #1 liberal arts college in the US for 2019 by Forbes Magazine. This highly selective college encourages student-athletes to pursue both their academic and athletic ambitions at a high level, and offers swim training outdoors year-round. Alex will undertake a rigorous pre-medical school program of courses at Pomona, likely majoring in Biology. She is enormously grateful to Head Coach Brian who has coached her for the past three years and to the many other VPSC coaches (including former VPSC Coaches Liz, Tyler, Lucien, Andre and Elliott), staff, and teammates who have supported her in countless ways over the past seven years.
VPSC Tops Leader Board in 2019 Swim-A-Thon
Congratulations to all our VPSC athletes on their fundraising efforts for the 2019 Swimming Canada Swim-A-Thon. The club raised $46,400 through the Raise-A-Thon website, ranking second overall out of all Swimming Canada clubs! Hopefully everyone is getting excited for the 2020 event coming up in May!
New Coaching Roster for the 2019/20 Season
VPSC is happy to announce the hiring of Scott Wilson for the upcoming 2019/20 season. Scott will be working with the High Performance and Senior National group swimmers on deck at the UBC Aquatic Centre. Scott brings 19 years of coaching experience at several of the largest and most successful swim clubs in Canada, including 3 years at the Swimming Canada High Performance Centre in Victoria. During his time in Victoria, Scott oversaw the Claremont Sports Institute High School Program, in partnership with HPC-Victoria. He has produced multiple provincial and senior National medalists and National team members. Scott is very excited to come to Vancouver and to help continue to support the proud VPSC tradition.
Welcome to VPSC Scott!
19th Annual Team Aquatic Supplies Sale BBQ & Sale
Saturday, September 14th/19
10:00AM-4:00PM
2019 Swim BC Summer Provincial Championships
July 20th, 2019 VPSC went to Victoria to compete at the Provincial Championships. Over the course of 3.5 days of intense racing, VPSC finished 8th overall with the Girls side finishing 7th, and the Boys side finishing 9th! Along with an outstanding team performance and presence at the meet, we had plenty of swimmers reach new standards and set themselves up for a great season-ending performance this month.
We had several highlights across all of the age group categories and here are just some of the highlights:
14 & Under Girls- With only 6 of the younger girls at the meet, we were able to do some pretty awesome things. Lily Buder came in and got all best times except for an unfortunate disqualification in her 200 IM. Sabrina Wu finished the weekend with all best times. Lily Zhang scored a whopping 46.5 points for the team and placed 3rd in both the 100 and 200 Fly.
15 & Under Boys- With several swimmers on the younger end of the age group, including several Junior Provincial swimmers joining the meet to gain experience, there was a lot of tough racing for the young boys. The performances were marked by drastic improvements with Euain Finlayson, Tyler Lee, Albert Chen, Jacky Tang David Wang, Iden Farzadeh, and Hiro Hiruki all achieving best times by several seconds. This was lead by David Wang who took off 7 seconds to qualify for the 200 Breast A final and place 4th. Jacky Tang had stellar performances in many of his events, winning the B final in both his 200 Free and 100 Fly, and placing 7th in his 200 Fly. Iden did an awesome job getting into the A final with a big best time in his 50 Free. Hiro's swim of the meet came in a 6th place finish in 200 Back taking off 6 seconds.
15 & Over Girls- VPSC went into the meet with the most of our provincial qualifiers in this age group, and they girls followed through with some tremendous team and individual performances. Caileigh Luis led the way with a team-high 52 points at the meet and capped off her performances with a bronze medal in the 400 IM. Nicolleta Panos had a high placing of 5th, with multiple best times and a solid 36 points for the team. Alex Turvey contributed 38 points of her own, getting into the A final in both her 100 Fly and 100 Free. Kate Block's best performance came in an exciting 800 Free race in which she placed 10th and took off almost 10 seconds from her best time. Blake Currie, with her first meet in the older age group, placed 14th in the 100 Breast, and 10th in the 200 Breast.
16 & Over Boys- With just 3 of the boys in the older category, they all did an excellent job representing the team as the club's fastest swimmers. Benji Eyre got best times in his 100 Free, 200 IM, and 100 Fly, and took 11th in his 200 IM. Garnet, Sean, and Benji all contributed to the senior relays, which had a high placing of 9th in the 4x50 Freestyle Relay.
Para Boys- Ramon Siytangco had a fantastic meet, contributing to the team with a whopping 104 points and competed across all classes to take off as mch as 3 seconds in his 200 Free event.
Overall, the meet was a great success for the team. Many swimmers will now move on to compete at the Senior LC Championships in Arizona, Far Western Championships in California, or at the Surrey Summer Fest at the end of July.
Thank you to all of the parents for your continued support, particularly the chaperones (Kathy Findlay, AJ Leitch, and Phuong Dong) that helped at the meet.
GO VPSC GO!!!
Experience gained for rising star
August 13th, 2019 Congratulations to Blake Currie on competing at the 2019 National Swimming Championships in Winnipeg, BC! Blake and Head Coach Brian travelled to Winnipeg, for what was a chance for one of our young rising stars to gain some experience on the national stage, competing against some of the top swimmers from across the nation. Experiences at the high level of competition that the meet provided, is what will help to develop our VPSC swimmers for the future, and will aid in getting our swimmers ready for National and International finals. Blake swam on the first day and the last day of the meet, so it was a great test on how to manage oneself over a long week at the pool! Great job Blake, we are all so proud of you!
