Members of the Canadian Badlands Aquatic Club have had an incredible season this year and once again are seeing some of their swimmers competing at the national level.
Last year Austin, 16, and Parker, 14 Knibb of Rosebud competed at the Canadian Swimming Nationals in Québec. This year they may have a little bit of a home pool advantage as the competition is at the Talisman Centre in Calgary.
Austin and Parker, along with teammate Devon Chernow of Airdrie are at the competition from July 25-30 and are looking to post some of their best results. Austin says the experience from last year may help.
‘I feel a lot better, I know what I am getting in to. It was a learning experience,” he said, adding the brother have been training six days a week getting in shape.
Austin is swimming in the all strokes at the 50m and the 100m backstroke.
Parker is also looking forward to the competition. He is swimming in the 50m butterfly, freestyle and backstroke as well as the 100m butterfly and back. He qualified at his last possible chance to make a qualifying national time. He did it for butterfly. One qualifying time will allow you to swim in up to seven events at nationals. More than one qualifying time will open your opportunities up to more events.
This follows a strong season for the team. Earlier this month, seven members competed at the Alberta Age Group and Senior Long Course Championships in Edmonton.
Chernow, swam in the 50 Free, Back, Breast and Fly, and finaled in Back and Fly, earning 18th place in 50 back against some of the best in the province.
Austin swam the 50m Back, Free, Fly & Breast. He finaled in Back, Fly and Free, narrowly missing the Western senior national time by .04/100 of a second.
Parker Knibb swam in seven events, making the A finals in all of them and finishing fourth in 50 Free and 50 Fly, this earned the team 59 points. A time of 28.62 qualified Parker to compete in The Canadian Nationals for swimming this year in Calgary, and July 2013 in Montreal.
Alan Lister swam six events.
This contingent of swimmers have their sights set on Age Group Nationals and Western Canadian Senior Championships next year in Montreal.
These are not the team’s only standouts. Kayla Goruk swam in seven events and “A” finaled in five. She swam improved times earning the team 30 points. Kayla will be representing Zone 3 - Big Country in the Alberta Summer Games on July 25 - 30 in Lethbridge, Alberta.
Brock Hoel swam seven events; ”A” finaling in five and swimming improved times in the remaining and was the recipient of a Youth Recognition Award for Top 5 Canadian Swimmer. This award is for swimmers who meet or beat the average time of the Top 5 Canadian swimmers of the past 10 years according to their age category. Brock earned 44 team points. Brock will also be competing in the Alberta Summer Games representing Big Valley.
Alexander Pratt swam seven events, “A” finaling in 3 and improved times in the remaining earning 42 team points. Alex has also qualified to compete in the Alberta Summer Games.
The team brought home even more accolades. Parker, Kayla, Hoel, and Pratt’s combined team effort at Age Group Provincial Championships earned CBAC their 4th consecutive Small Team Award. This is awarded by Swim Alberta, who is our governing body. A team is considered Small when you have 50 or less competitive registered swimmers.
