From 200 metres to 2.5 kilometres, Whitehorse’s Rennes Lindsay was producing top 10 finishes hand over fist this past week.
The Glacier Bears swimmer placed top 10 in all five of her events at the Canadian Age Group Championships in Calgary with personal best times in every event.
“I feel like I’m so much more prepared for these meets now,” said Lindsay. “Last year for nationals I was very nervous of what was going to play out.
“So a highlight for me is I learned how to prepare better for meets.”
Lindsay wrapped up her pool events with fourth place in the 400-metre free on Sunday with a time of 4:39.49, just 1.84 seconds behind the bronze medalist from New Brunswick. She won a bronze in the 400 free (and the 800 free) at her first nationals last year.
The 13-year-old also took fifth in the 800 free (9:44.05), eighth in the 1,500 free (18:48.51) and 10th in the 200 free (2:14.72), just 0.03 seconds from reaching another final.
“In May at the Yukon invitational I hurt my ankle and it’s just basically healed now – it’s almost totally fine again,” said Lindsay. “So it’s taken about three months and I feel I lost a bit of my endurance during that time, so I’m really proud of my results.”
Lindsay wrapped up the championship with a 10th place finish in the 2.5-kilometre open water event Monday. She finished in 27:52.41 at the event held in Arbour Lake.
“I’m a bit nervous because I’ve never done that much,” said Lindsay the night before the open water race. “About two and a half weeks ago I did two (kilometres) at the B.C. AAAs, so it’s going to be really big and new, so I’m excited.”
Older sister Cassis Lindsay placed top 20 in two events at her third straight age group nationals.
She took 11th in the 50 free (27.97) and 20th in the 100 free (1:01.69) in the 15-year-old girls division.
“I like the 50 free; I’m proud of my performance,” said Cassis. “I think 11th is good. I’m pretty happy with that.
“The end of meets are always good because see the small things you need to work on for next year. My technique has improved a lot lately, but there’s always more to improve.”
Cassis, who won a bronze in the 50 free at the B.C. AAAs, also raced two butterfly events. She took 30th in the 50 fly (30.65) and 39th in the 100 fly (1:10.60).
She didn’t set personal bests in any of her events.
“I didn’t do any PBs but it was close. The pool was very shallow, so when you look at the results, a lot of people went slow. It was very hard for people to make PBs in that pool,” said Cassis.
“If it’s shallow the water has less places to go and the currents and waves affect you more than if it was deeper. That’s why Olympic pools are deep, at least three metres deep.”
The Lindsay sisters were joined by Glacier Bears teammate Hannah Kingscote, who was competing at her first nationals. Just reaching the championship was a win for the 14-year-old.
“I didn’t swim any personal bests, but it was a different pool and I wasn’t used to swimming at a meet like this. I was a bit nervous,” said Kingscote. “I still think I did pretty well.
“Making nationals was the goal for my season and I accomplished that.”
Kingscote placed 23rd in the 50-metre backstroke (33.71) and 24th in the 100 back (1:13.75). She also claimed 29th in the 50 fly (31.29) and 32nd in the 100 fly (1:11.73).
“It was a lot different than the meets that we’ve had in B.C., but it was really nice having Cassis and Rennes there. Everyone is just so much faster here,” said Kingscote.
“I was really happy with all my swims,” she added. “I wish I could have taken a little more time off, but I’ll just have to make nationals next year to get higher up on the rankings.”
Contact Tom Patrick at tomp@yukon-news.com