The Northern Lights Palace pool was a busy spot as swimmers from across the northern part of the province descended on Melfort for the North Semifinals.
The July 29 swim meet, which is a qualifier for the provincial championship, featured 121 swimmers from eight different clubs including Humboldt, Watrous, Saskatoon, Melfort, Nipawin, Rosetown, Biggar and Shelbrook.
The meet came to Melfort for the first time in a number of years as the competition is rotated between each of the clubs.
Being able to host a meet at the caliber of the North Semifinals is great, noted Leeann Vhal, the meet manager, who said the program is a great asset to the community.
“It gives the kids a chance to get into the competitive swimming world, but we only swim three months of the year so they’re still able to do other sports and activities besides swimming.”
Hosting a competition the size of the North Semifinals takes a great deal of volunteers, said Vhal, who noted they had a great deal of people who helped act as officials, as well as some who helped with set up and clean up, which is invaluable.
“You wouldn’t be able to hold a meet without everybody coming together.”
The volunteers not only came from Melfort and the Melfort Marlins Swim Club, but they also came from all of the other clubs who competed over the course of the weekend, which was a humbling feeling knowing that the whole summer swim community was behind them, said Vhal.
“This is my first year in this position as meet manager and so it was a big learning curve for me. But knowing we had the support and the experience from some of the other clubs behind us just made the whole event go smoothly.”
Overall, Vhal said the meet went well.
Marlins results
The Marlins saw 18 of their swimmers enter the competition, as they enjoyed varying levels of success, failing to reach the top three in combined team points, but finishing third in junior team points, behind Humboldt and Watrous.
Despite failing to reach the podium in the team points competition, the Marlins still saw a number of terrific results in the individual points events, with the club claiming four medals including one gold and three silvers.
Bringing home the lone gold medal for the Marlins Swim Club was Jalyn Miller, who captured the 9-10 girls title, finishing ten points clear of the second place swimmer from Watrous.
The silver medal winners meanwhile were won by Cole Rogers in the 7-8 boys event, Kadence Ilnisky in the 11-12 girls competition and Reese Nelson in the 15-17 boys category.
Looking back at their competition, Vhal noted the Marlins swimmers all did well.
“Whether they were getting places in the races or not they all had good swims.”
Thanks to their great swims, the Marlins will be sending 12 swimmers to compete in individual races at to the provincial championship in Watrous Aug. 5-6.
