Thunderbirds Win Dave Kensit Memorial Championship

This weekend 23 Thunderbird swimmers travelled to Sault Ste. Marie for the Dave Kensit Memorial Championship with 15 teams from the Northeastern Ontario Region participating and 195 swimmers in attendance.

The club came home with 38 gold, 19 silver and 12 bronze medals winning again the Dave Kensit Memorial high point team trophy. Four swimmers, Jesse Hives (12), Jaydan Jackson (13), Sierra McCourt (14) and Mackenzie King(14) all won high point trophies in their respective age group as well as Talia Preston and Zeyana Laplante placing 2nd & 3rd in the girls 10 and under and Jaime Udeschini placing 3rd overall in the 14-year-old girls category.

All ten of the 13 & over swimmers qualified for finals in the evening with many placing in the top 3 while seven team records were broken with 3 of them coming from the relays, 3 from Jaydan Jackson and 1 from Mackenzie King.

McCourt and Jackson came home with 7 gold medals each while Jesse Hives and Mackenzie King had six. Sydney Hughes swam to 7 silver in the 12-year-old girls category, Sean Pulyk had 1 gold and 3 silver & Josh Brost had 2 gold and 2 bronze in the 12-year-old boys category. Zeyana Laplante and Talia Preston both competed in the 10 & under girls category with Preston placing 2nd overall swimming to 2 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze and Laplante placing 3rd swimming to 3 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze. Gabriel Brind Amour Riffou swam to 2 gold, 1 silver & 1 bronze while Dylan Jackson swam to a silver and 2 bronze and Jaime Udeschini to 2 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze. Andrew Palangio, James Gibb and Greg Katsuno all came away from the meet with a bronze medal.

In the evening at the Dave Kensit Senior Championship, James Gibb and Megan Hives both swam in 3 finals posting top 15 finishes. Emma Hives qualified for 7 events with two top five placings, Andrew Palangio with one top 5th placing and Greg Katsuno also qualified for 7 events with 5 top 10 placings. Jaime Udeschini swam to two firsts, a fourth and two sixth's while Sierra McCourt swam to four seconds, two thirds and a fourth. Mackenzie King, Jaydan and Dylan Jackson all qualified in 7 events with King posting a 2nd, 3rd and 4th, Jaydan Jackson four 2nd, a 3rd, 4th & 5th and Dylan Jackson one 2nd, two thirds and a 4th, 5th & 6th.

Top ten finishers for the weekend all with personal best times were Kylie Webster, Noah Swain, Regan Jackson, Zaffia Laplante, Tessa Steel, Monika Hotson and Megan & Emma Hives.

On Saturday, February 1st in Valley East five swimmers participated in a Top Fish meet with all of them posting personal best times and they are Evan Lechlitner, Marie Eve Gauthier, Karyn Busch, Christa Wright, and Jaimee Reynolds.

Six swimmers Jesse Hives,Jaydan and Dylan Jackson, Mackenzie King, Jaime Udeschini and Sierra McCourt are now preparing for the Junior Short Course Provincial Championship in Nepean February 26 to March 1st and then a well needed break from competition for the month of March.

Submitted to BayToday.ca