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Nauticals concluded season with awards, barbecue

Sylvan Lake Nauticals celebrated the end of another successful season with a barbecue on the beach Saturday night.

Sylvan Lake Nauticals celebrated the end of another successful season with a barbecue on the beach Saturday night. Despite the light rain many came out to enjoy each other’s company in a more informal way.

In the Copper category, Alexa Labelle, recognized for her energy and enthusiasm, and Chase Laitila, recognized for his increased strength and endurance were in attendance. Sophie and Liam Ewanchuk were not able to attend. Both worked hard this year at getting more comfortable in the water and learning basic swim skills.

In Bronze, we ended the year with Joshua St. Germain, whose positive attitude and sense of humour was always a wonderful addition to our group. Owen Prior who was working on staying on task, Ella Tymenson who was very strong in stroke basics and Alden Tymenson who was wonderful at diving in the deep end were not in attendance.

Silver stayed strong right until the end! In attendance were Blake Carson, recognized for his improving stroke technique, Hayden Irwin represented by his mom, recognized for his strength and endurance, Kora-Lynn Juneau who has shown strengths as a great competitor, Hailey Nixon whose smile kept us all going during hard practices, Sydney Nixon who was a leader in her group, Keara Slimmon whose strength was growing every day, and Justin St. Germain who moved up two levels in this season and took on the challenge every time. Not in attendance were Issac Bahler who takes on any challenge, Capri Fraser who loves to compete, Gracie Langford who is leading with turn technique and backstroke, Elias Rubletz whose technique is improving every day, Olivia Rubletz who was also mastering her technique and gaining strength, Kristen Sandburg, a great competitor who loves a challenge and our newest swimmers Molly and Sara who fit right in and improved tremendously in the short time they trained with us this year.

In attendance with Gold was Zoe DeJonge, known for her ability to take feedback and incorporate it, Stephanie Vetter, with her great attitude in practice and mastering her technique, Eliana Mulholland who is a leader at practice and does extra on her own, Eden Price who has the heart of a lion and loves a challenge, Cole Matthews who is starting to show that he can train and train hard and Asha Weaver, a swimmer who is always looking for how to improve and gives it her all every time. Not in attendance were Avery Burger who picks up technical skills faster than anyone and Leightan Yablonski who tries her best and loves to compete. Leightan has been figuring out butterfly after working hard at it.

In Platinum we had Amber Carson who is starting to improve her breaststroke, being strong in all other strokes, Michael Carson who is a mighty competitor when he puts his mind to it, Ann Duffy, a leader in the group who keeps others on task and enjoys the hard work at practice, Jasmine Hafso who earned her first meet qualifying times for provincial trials this year, Kacey Joseph who keeps us all smiling no matter how hard the workout, Tatum Lavellee who is an all round strong athlete, Erin Matthews who earned her first “A” Provincial qualifying time in 50 free, Janelle Mitchell who despite some setbacks continued to improve and get stronger, Jayden Mitchell who is mastering his technique, Elizabeth Moore who has been in the top five in Canada in many of her strokes, Taylor Nixon who is very quiet but is making her presence known by the improvement in her technique, Lexi Sparrow whose favourite stroke is butterfly and is very strong in it, Sven Van Wijk, whose strokes have improved greatly this year and Annika Vetter who had everything click and also earned her first meet qualifying times this year. Not in attendance was Crysta Rukin who is improving her technique every day.

For our seniors, Chase Murdoch has gained tremendous strength this year and it really shows in his strokes. Not in attendance was Samantha Murdoch who has joined us at the end of the season after being away at school all year.

The big awards were given out as follows:

Female swimmer of the year – Elizabeth Moore

Male swimmer of the year - Chase Murdoch

Female swimmer, top points – Elizabeth Moore

Male swimmer top points – Michael Carson

Female most improved - Jasmine Hafso

Male most improved - Sven Van Wijk

Female rookie of the year -Eden Price

Male rookie of the year - Cole Matthews

Leadership Award - Ann Duffy

Heart and Soul Award - Lexi Sparrow

Coaches Sharon and Trevor are very proud of all of our swimmers and can’t wait to swim with you all again next year. Amber Carson, Elizabeth Moore, Erin Matthews, Chase Murdoch and Samantha Murdoch are going on to swim at provincials. Amber Carson and Elizabeth Moore will also be representing us at Alberta Summer Games.

Sharon and Trevor would also like to give a big thank you to our parents who have helped out throughout the year, especially board members who put in so much time. We couldn’t do it without you! Thank you to Pam Mitchell - President, Tracy Carson - Vice President and parent liaison, Sherri Nixon - Treasurer, Pam Moore - Registrar, Heidi O’Connor - Secretary, Stacey St. Germain - director at large and in general a very helpful person and our busy bingo chair Kim Matthews.

by Coaches Trevor and Sharon Burns - Special to Sylvan Lake News