Athletes on the local Catholic high school's swim team are pulling ahead in local races and ready to dive into the competition at the regional championships next week.
Earlier this month, Our Lady of the Bay Catholic High School's (OLB) swim team joined 10 other teams at a University of Toronto swim meet, and earned a third place team finish for the male team and eighth for the girls team.
The OLB team results from the Dec. 1 meet were as follows:
Liam Paterson led the way with three first-place finishes in his individual events and helped his relay team with a fourth-place finish.
Spencer Adlington, Anderson Hulshof, Christian Ferreira, Olivia Thomson, Alex Meguerian and Sydney Kemp had top-five finishes in their events, including a dominant first-place finish in the medley relay from Liam, Spencer, Marshall and Anderson.
Marshall Kerr continues to dominate in his events with personal bests, especially his 100 free and Andrew DenBok has had amazing personal bests in his breaststroke.
Jack Wessinger had great result in his 100 IM and 50 free, Ethan Does improved his time on his 50 free and breast as did Isaac Morris.
Liam, Christian, Jack and Alex placed a strong fourth in their medley relay.
Olivia Thompson, Amelia Ellis, Mia Braden and Olive Ben Ghali finished seventh out of 15 medley relays and Mia continued to get personal bests in her events.
Sunny Valdez gained points for the females in her strong 100 breaststroke and she helped her free relay place fourth along with Sydney Kemp, Amelia Ellis, Olive Ben Ghali.
Olive Ben Ghali displayed strong showings in all of her events, and was part of some strong relay teams.
Kaj Kulakowsky, new to the swim team, placed respectively in all of his events. Julian Valdez had thrilling races, placing first in his heats, and shaving off a lot of time and adding so much excitement to the day.
The team sends gratitude to the parents who helped the team get to the meet and supported them while they were there.
Training is underway for the Georgian Bay Secondary Schools Association regional championships in Barrie on Dec. 12.
