Hives and McCourt achieve new provincial times

(North Bay) - The Thunderbirds certainly have something to ‘splash’ about after the success the swimmers had in both the Youth Cup and Mega City meets held in Etobicoke last week. Jesse Hives (9) and Sierra McCourt (12) are celebrating their new provincial times and many other Thunderbirds are closing the gap on the provincial time standards. Thunderbird provincial qualifiers so far this year include Jennifer Piper, Bryanna Penno, Sierra McCourt, Jesse Hives and Andrew Palangio.

Jennifer Piper (15) had an amazing performance during Youth Cup finishing second overall in the 50 metre fly with a time of 29.69 seconds and fourth in the 50m free with a time of 27.54 seconds. Bryanna Penno, the busiest swimmer with over 10 events, achieved personal bests in 8 of them. Penno placed 15th in the 200m fly within the women’s 13-14 year old category, 12th in the 50m breast, and 14th in the 100m breast.

The Youth Cup was the first All Star meet for both Megan Menard and Sierra McCourt. Menard accomplished 2 personal bests in the women’s 12 and under 50m fly and 50m breast. Meanwhile McCourt captured 8 personal bests out of 9 swims, placing 12th in the women’s 12 and under 200m fly and 13th in the 50m fly.

This was the second Youth Cup for Emma Hives and Andrew Palangio as part of the All Star team. Both of them captured 2 personal bests. Palangio excelled at the 100 free and 200 free in the men’s 13 -14year old category. Hives went full out on the 200 free and 100 back in the women’s 13 to 14 year old category.

Meanwhile, Thunderbirds showed ‘mega talent’ at the Mega City Swim Meet held in Toronto at the same time as the Youth Cup. Jesse Hives, Megan Hives, Dylan Jackson, Jayden Jackson, Jaime Lee Udeschini and Sierra Guido achieved 33 personal bests. Jesse Hives placed 7 in the women’s 10 and under 50m back, and 10th in the 200m back. Megan Hives (11) placed 11th in the 12 and under 200m free and swam personal bests in 7 out of 8 races. In the same category Sierra Guido managed to achieve 3 personal bests, Jaime Lee Undeschini placed 16th in the 200m free and 17th in the 50m back and had 8 personal bests, and Jayden Jackson performed really well ending the meet with 5 personal bests. Dylan Jackson finished 9th in 3 races; men’s 13-15 400m free, 200m free, and 200m IM. Dylan also placed 10th in the 50m free and 11th in the 400m IM.

Both Coach Pierre Simard, who was selected head coach for the All Star Team and Coach André Udeschini (Mega City Meet) were impressed with how well the team's represented Northern Ontario.

“The Thunderbirds work really hard to achieve their personal bests and as a result have a great deal of fun and success when they attend these meets," Simard said.

“The All Star Team worked very hard and showed a great deal of talent. We were led by some great swimmers in the North”.

Submitted to BayToday.ca