Three young swimmers are making waves in the competitive swim world as they train together with the Collingwood Clippers Swim Club.
Cole Mitchell, Hailey Abbott, and Maggie Rhodes have qualified for the Eastern Canadian Championship invitational swim meet. This is the first time in at least 20 years the Clippers have sent three swimmers to the national-level swim meet.
Coach Shane Downey said the team has been training hard together in an effort to raise up more top-level swimmers, and being able to send three swimmers to the championships in Quebec City is “quite an accomplishment.”
Each swimmer needs to meet a certain time standard in their event to qualify. Mitchell, 15, has qualified to compete in the 100m free, 100m backstroke, and 200m backstroke. He’s been swimming competitively since he was six years old, and has been training with the Clippers for the last six years. He’s a student at Collingwood Collegiate Institute (CCI).
Mitchell has competed at a national level before, and hopes to return for the Senior Men’s competition in the Canadian National Championships this year and earn a spot in the finals.
Abbott will be competing in the 100m breaststroke. The Grade 9 student also attends CCI, and has been swimming competitively since age 7 with the Collingwood Clippers.
She said the spirit of competition keeps her in the sport.
“When you reach higher and higher standards, you stay motivated,” she said.
Rhodes is also a Grade 9 student at CCI and has qualified in the 200m backstroke. She said she’d like to make it to the Canadian Junior Championships in the next two years, and only has to shave a couple seconds off her times to qualify.
All three swimmers are in the pool for 1.5 hours eight times a week. Mitchell and Abbott also train at Active Life Conditioning.
All three are working toward a swimming scholarship when they finish high school with a place on a Candian or US varsity team.
“This level of competition opens up a lot of doors in Canada and the US for varsity teams,” said Downey.
Mitchell has his eyes on a competitive travel team to give him a chance to compete at an international level.
Downey and the team will travel to Quebec City next month for the Eastern Canadian Championships April 11 to 13. In the meantime, the team is training at Centennial Aquatic Centre, and attending a training meet in Guelph this weekend.
