A group of Northern Novas made the most of their first Outside competition over the weekend in Richmond, B.C.
All eight members of the Yukon synchronized swimming club won at least one medal at the Synchro B.C. Regional Championships/Masters Provincial Championships.
“We were really happy with it,” said Novas coach Heather O’Carroll. “We went down not knowing what to expect ... I didn’t know what all the athletes were going to be like, what level they would be at, but we set some goals before we went down and ended up exceeding all of them.”
“It was really exciting for the whole team to go down and do well,” she added. “The competition is fun anyway, to go down and have success made it all the more exciting.”
The Northern Novas collected three medals at the provincial level for solo and team events.
Yukon’s Teera Walsh impressed the judges with her powerful swimming in the 13-15 age group.
Walsh placed second in the province out of four swimmers in her solo routine and took fifth in the interior B.C. region - ninth overall - in the figures competition.
“She performed the heck out of her routine,” said O’Carroll. “We weren’t sure how it would go because everyone was nervous and it was everyone’s first time competing outside the Yukon. But she moved like crazy; she had awesome propulsion through her whole routine ... It was higher level movement - like you’d expect from a national level swimmer.”
Teammate Taylor Jobin had similar results in the 11-12 age group. Jobin placed first for the region and second overall out of five swimmers in the solo competition. She also placed 10th in the region and 16th overall out of 27 in figures.
“Taylor ended up getting really nervous and kind of got switched around in the pool because their pool is sort of backwards from ours,” said O’Carroll. “She actually forgot her choreography in the middle of it and did some of her routine out of sequence, but she totally pulled it off. She improvised and made up dance moves ... I don’t think anyone other than her teammates would notice she forgot her choreography. But she ended up doing awesome and had a great performance.”
It’s been a long time since the Northern Novas sent swimmers to compete in a team event, but they did not disappoint.
A team of Cambria Alford, Cameron Maguire, Helene Maguire, Amelia Frey, Hailey Rough and Katrina Josie swam to first in the region and third in the province out of 13 teams in the Star 1 and 2 division.
“I think it was the first time since 1999 that we had a full team competing like that,” said O’Carroll. “We’re hoping to groom these athletes and get them up to a higher level and hopefully have a Canada Games team.”
The same swimmers all placed in the top half of a field of 65 in the figures competition for Star 1 and 2.
Alford placed second in the region and sixth in the province; Maguire third in the region and seventh overall; Maguire fifth and 15th overall; Frey seventh and 21st overall; Rough eighth and 22nd overall; and Josie ninth and 26th overall.
“Their figures were really impressive,” said O’Carroll. “Some of our chaperones were getting some judging training and they got comments from of the judges about how impressed they were by our club and figures.”
The Northern Novas are hosting their annual Synchro Spring Water Show at the Canada Games Centre this Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com