Local swimmers 'Surge' to 33 wins at North Bay meet

As the season moves on for the Sault Surge Aquatic Team, a number of swimmers enjoyed success at a recent meet hosted by the North Bay Y Titans.

As the team prepares for a swim meet in Windsor next weekend, the North Bay meet saw local swimmers grab over 30 event wins between the 31 local swimmers competing.

Following is a full release on the meet:

31 swimmers represented the Sault Surge Aquatic Team at the recent Dominique Bouchard Invitational swim meet hosted by the North Bay Y Titans. A total of 300 swimmers  from 10 clubs in the North Eastern Ontario Region (NEOR) competed at the meet.

Despite competing under training load in preparation for the Border City Invitational meet next weekend in Windsor, Surge swimmers still managed 127 personal best times and picked up 86 top three finishes including 33 event wins.

Leading the way for the Surge was Will Banton winning five events along with the 50m freestyle eliminator event. The eliminator event was swam on Sunday evening with the top six male and top six female swimmers from the previous day's 50m freestyle event. A swimmer was eliminated after each heat until only two remained to race for the championship. 

Surge was well represented with Banton, Bernard Santos, Kevin Li, Andrew Li, and Oliver Bennetto qualifying in the top six in the 13 years old and over boys eliminator event and winning individual events over the course of the meet. Mia Lloyd represented the surge in the Girls 13 years old and over Eliminator. Sophia Li, who picked up 4 individual event wins, finished 2nd overall in the Girls 12 years old and younger eliminator event.

Abby Maguire, Margot Oak, Ryelind Pihlaja, Juliana Kaminski, Angela Thompson, and Emma Vallee demonstrated that hard work pays off by swimming to new personal best times in each and every swim that they competed in over the course of the weekend. Thompson's personal best time in the 50m freestyle qualified her for the Ontario Festival Championships joining Sophis Li who was previously qualified. 

Will Paraniuk who swam his first ever 200m freestyle picked up an event win for the boys 10 and under age group earned his first qualification standard for the Surge hosted North Eastern Ontario Regional Dave Kensit Memorial Championships. 

Relay teams continue to be a strong component of the Sault Surge Program with three event wins, four second place finishes and a third place finish. Brooklyn Barber led off the girls 10 and under second place relay team with a time fast enough to give her her first NEOR Dave Kensit memorial championship qualifying time.

Sault Surge will have 29 swimmers competing at the Windsor Aquatic Club hosted Border City Invitational to be held at the Windsor International Aquatic Centre Dec. 1-3. Some of Canada's top swimmers representing the top programs in the country will be in attendance.