Morning Star Staff
The Vernon Kokanee Swim Club raced to fourth spot in the 24th annual Kamloops June Classic Long Course swim meet.
There was a field of 26 clubs competing. From the 51 swimmers competing for VKSC, there were 237 best times reached during the three-day meet.
Sophie Lepage qualified for her AAA times needed to compete in Victoria later this summer. Lepage qualified in the 50, 100, and 200 freestyle events.
Younger sister Alexanne Lepage also had a great meet and qualified for the AA provincial championships, June 24-26, in Kamloops. Alexanne qualified in 100 and 200 freestyle, while taking home first place in 100 free and 100 breastroke.
Other top swims came from Meredith Levorson, who won the 50 free in 26.75 seconds. Levorson finished first in the 200 individual medley and 200 free, second in the 200 backstroke and third in the 100 back.
Just missing her best time in the 50 freefrom last year, Levorson is working towards fast swimming this summer at the age-group championships in Calgary and Senior Nationals in Edmonton.
She was a finalist in the Tim Hortons Athlete-of-the-Year awards. The honour went to Olympic and World Cup snowboarder Kevin Hill.
Liam Williamson had a top-three swim in the 200 backstroke with 2:33.22, while Kelsey Fillion took third in the 50 free and also made the finals in eight events.
Gavin Johnson placed third in the 100 breastroke for the 10 and Under Boys with 1:59.83.
Aidan McWhinney, competing in the 10 and Under category, made top-six in seven events, placing third in the 50 back with 46.23. Ryan Murphy competed in seven finals and raced to a silver medal in the 100 back at 1:17.80.
Nicholas Phillips had a strong meet, dropping 100 per cent of his times and finished with racing eight different finals.
Other 100 per cent best times came from Robert Yacovelli, Aiden McWhinney, Georgia McKinley, Amelia Hudson, and Pascal Glanz.
‘I was very pleased with the results; many of the swimmers had excellent swim times,” said Kokanee head coach Steven Vander Meulen.
“Some swimmers are at the end of their season and finished really well but we also had very strong results from swimmers who have a month or more to go so I am excited to see even better results through the summer months,”
The Kokanee will have 18 qualifiers competing at the provincials in Kamloops.
They will send eight athletes to the the B.C. AAA Championships, July 7-11, in Victoria
The club will also head to Calgary with two swimmers qualified for the National Age Group Championships, July 27-31.