The Squamish Pirates descended on a Burnaby pool and looted the place to bring home medals of gold, silver and bronze.
Members of the local swim club participated in the provincial swimming championships Aug. 21 and 22 and brought home a total of nine medals.
Theresa Erickson and Claire Ourom won bronze medals in their relay event. Theresa swam the breast stroke leg for her team and Claire handled the freestyle duties.
Jessica Johnstone, 9, won three medals and proved to be the biggest winner on the team from Squamish. Two of her medals were for first place finishes in the 50 and 100 metre freestyle events. Her other medal was a silver in the 50 metre backstroke.
Hana Vartanis, 11, picked up a medal in a 50 backstroke race as well. Hana placed third.
Coach Kelly Kaye won three bronze medals. Her top finishes were in the 50 free, 100 breast and 100 back. Kaye insisted her medals were secondary to the accomplishments of her swimmers.
"We had a lot of swimmers that were top eight in the province," Kaye said.
The Pirates were competing against swimmers from 60 other teams across 小蓝视频 A total of 18 Squamish swimmers competed at the provincial event, most of them girls.
"We got more points as a team than ever before by a lot," said Kaye. "Our girls came 17th out of the province."
Jessica, who worked mostly this summer with assistant coach Ryan Corbett, was happy with her medals but she knows she can go faster - "A lot faster," she said.
Hana said the daily training through the summer was hard.
"I was glad it was over," she said of her efforts at the provincial championships.
Despite the hard work, the swimmers said they will be back next season. Kaye and Corbett both plan to be back next season. The head coach pointed out that registration for the winter maintenance program will begin the first week of October at Brennan Park Aquatic Centre.
"We're especially looking for young kids," said Kaye. "We train twice a week in the winter."
