Vipers in Brooks

By Greg Price
Taber Times
gprice@tabertimes.com

Taber Viper Swim Club members made one of its biggest splashes ever in its opening meet of the spring/summer season by getting a huge number of participants at the Brooks Barracudas meet this past weekend where numerous locals brought home aggregate medals.

“We actually had 36 swimmers go to this meet. That’s over half of our club. That was very impressive,” said Teri Cook, head coach of the Taber Viper Swim Club.

Emma Fenske earned a silver for six-and-under girls. Lauren Pack won gold for nine-and-10-year-old girls. Chance Cook took the bronze aggregate for 13-and-14-year-old boys. For the 15-to-17-year-old girls category, Isabelle Bennett earned silver while fellow teammate Kelsey Garner won bronze. Darci Wright won the gold aggregate 11-to-12-year-old girls. Renae Saunders earned bronze for 13-and-14-year-old girls.

“When you don’t have a whole lot of time to train, where we only had three weeks to get into the whole swimming thing, pool-shape with understanding all the techniques that need to go on, I was very impressed with our results,” said Cook.

The following is a list of top-three finishes in various events by Vipers swimmers:

For 11-and-12-year old girls, Jessica Anderson finished in second for 200-metre free style (3:04.76) and took thirds in 50-metre backstroke (44.77) and 50-metre freestyle (36.91). Darci Wright swept first-place finishes in her events in the same age category, which included 100-metre freestyle (1:15.41), 200-metre freestyle (2:50.94), 50-metre freestyle (33.72) and 50-metre fly (36.22).

Isabelle Bennett was top finisher in 50-metre fly (36.63) and 100-metre IM (1:24.17) for 15-to-17-year-old girls. She also clocked in second place for 100-metre freestyle (1:12.98 and 50-metre breaststroke (44.26). In the same age category, fellow Viper Kelsey Garner was top swimmer in 100-metre breaststroke (1:58.49), second in 50-metre freestyle (37.68), second in 50-metre backstroke (44.59), and third in 50-metre breaststroke (50.04).

In the 13-and-14-year-old girls category, Morgan Bos was in second place for 100-metre backstroke (1:30.63) and took third in 100-metre freestyle (1:16.12). Jenna Clarke took second in 100-metre IM (1:43.78) and third for 100-metre breaststroke (1:58.37) In the same category, Jordyn Clarke was third for 100-metre IM (1:51.87). Renae Saunders took top spot for 100-metre fly (1:22.80) and second places in both 50-metre backstroke (37.43) and 50-metre fly (35.01).

Emily Carver’s time of 1:04.48 was good enough for second place for nine-and-10-year-old girls.

Chance Cook has a bunch of top-three finishes for 13-and-14-year-old boys including first in 100-metre freestyle (1:05.41) and second place in both 50-metre freestyle (28.85) and 50-metre backstroke (36.49). He also finished in third for 50-metre breaststroke (40.59).

Emma Fenske clocked in first place for 25-metre flutterboard (31.89), took second in 25-metre backstroke (33.98) and finished in third for 25-metre freestyle (36.59) for six-and-under girls. In the same age category, Gemma Jones was third in 25-metre backstroke (44.88).

Lauren Pack’s performance in nine-and-10-year-old girls saw a first-place finish in 100-metre freestyle (1:30.46), second places in both 50-metre freestyle (39.66) and 25-metre breaststroke (25.36). She also clocked in at third for 50-metre breaststroke (56.89). In the same age category. Rylee Peterson was third for 100-metre freestyle (1:52.84).

Dylan Saunders earned himself a second for 400-metre freestyle (7:07.71) and a third for 200-metre freestyle (3:19.01) for 12-and-under boys.

Apart from the top-three finishes, Cook was pleased to see some of the huge strides many swimmers have taken individually in their skill sets from last year to this years so early into the season.

“This is my first year head coaching, but fifth year overall helping with coaching with this club. It’s something I’ve really enjoyed,” said Cook. “This was our first swim meet (in 2015) and we had kids beating their personal best times from last year. We’ve had an immense amount of work go on in practice and we’ve seen the results at the meet.”

Taber Viper Swim Club’s next meet is this weekend, June 6 in Claresholm.