Swim coach pleased with team's progress this summer

BY JOHN DECOSTE

jdecoste@kentvilleadvertiser.ca

NovaNewsNow.com

It may not necessarily show in the results, but the Kentville Marlins swim team is making steady progress, says head coach Shauna Manning.

A contingent of 14 Marlins attended a meet July 19 in Bridgewater and while “our team did not place high,” Manning said, “we had only 14 swimmers. Some clubs had 100 or more swimmers and it’s hard to compete against those kinds of numbers.”

At the same time, she added, the Kentville swimmers that attended “had mostly best times in their swims, or stayed around their best times.”

One newer swimmer that has impressed Manning and assistant coach Luc Boudreau so far is 10-year-old Bruce Higgins, who took 15 seconds off his time in the 50-metre freestyle in Bridgewater and 19 seconds off his time in the 25-metre butterfly.

“I’ve been very impressed with Bruce so far,” Manning said. “He has been working hard and listening well to what we coaches say, and it’s really showing in his results.”

Rachel Mader, Meghan Nicholson, Isaac Payne, Ethan Payne and Anthony Hoare all swam one or more personal best times at the meet. Gareth Nicholson maintained his best times and also swam the 200-metre freestyle for the first time, placing 16th.

Younger swimmers such as Ruth Hall, Maggie-Jean Kalkman, Trevor Kalkman, Logan Durling and Nick Aalders all got to swim events for the first time and gained valuable experience.

Manning was also pleased with the 11-12 boys’ 200-metre medley relay team of Nick Aalders (backstroke), Isaac Payne (breaststroke), Ethan Payne (butterfly) and Anthony Hoare (freestyle), who placed fourth out of nine teams.

“The meet was long,” Manning said, “but it didn’t seem to get to our swimmers. There were some DQs (disqualifications), but that comes with learning. The swimmers know what they did wrong and they now know what to do so it doesn’t happen again.”

In terms of individual results, Justin Aalders continued a solid season with a third-place finish in the 50-metre butterfly. Aalders was also fourth in the 200 free and ninth in the 100 breast. Isaac Payne also had a top-10 finish, placing ninth in the 25 breaststroke.