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Day 4 Age Group Nationals
*story by Lia Lancaster
The fourth finals session of the meet started off well enough, with a solid swim by Hanna Edwards in the 100 back, who moved up one spot and came in 6th with a time of 1:08.77. Lauren Crisp also had a good performance in her 100 back, and came in 5th with 1:04.07.
The excitement really started for the team in the 200 breastroke. Jordan Andrusak claimed her spot in the 16-18 year old girls heat, going a 2:38.03 and taking a 3rd place spot on the podium. Michael Schmidt and Brendan Fitzpatrick took their second one-two sweep in tonight’s breastroke; Schmidt coming in first with a 2:31.62 and Fitzpatrick coming in a close second with a 2:33.33. The powerhouse breastroke duo were on either side of lane 5, and dominated the race from the beginning. It was a very exciting race to watch, as the two teammates and friends battled it out for the gold.
But the PCS energy didn’t stop there! Jessica Luo started out very strong in the 200 freestyle. She was first to the 100 meter wall, and lead a very close race the entire 200 meters, but held on to the lead, winning a gold medal and a cowboy hat with a time of 2:06.77. Anthony Gutierrez also competed in the 200 free, and came in 6th with a 2:04.50.
No other way to get the crowd going than a few speedy relays! The energy in the pool was electric (literally, there was a thunderstorm going on at the same time) The PCS boys A team started us off for the relays, and Anthony Gutierrez didn’t disappoint the team with a solid starting time of 58.89, followed by Keir Ogilvie, who caught up with the main pack. Next to dive in was Brendan Fitzpatrick, who not only keeps up with the other teams but takes a spot at the leader’s heels. Last to go is the anchor, Michael Schmidt, who finishes strong and gets his team in third place…however, the second place team was disqualified! This brought the PCS boys up to second place and with a silver medal each, and a time of 4.00.41.
The 13-14 girls relay was, I have to say, the most exciting. Every twenty meters, the leader seemed to have changed and the trailing team seemed to have caught up. The PCS girls had a very strong start, with Grace Macdonald leading off in a 1.01.08 and positioned her team in a good place. She touched the wall to start off Lily Chen, who is at her very first AGN’s. Chen raced well, and when Sophie Lorette started, she had a gap to close between her team and the others. It looked as if she was going to stay behind them, however slowly but surely she regained PCS’s position with the rest of the teams. But the girls still weren’t first when good old Jessica Luo, who could be said to be a secret weapon, dove in. Thanks to Lorette’s solid comeback, Luo had a fighting chance at beating most teams. Of course she didn’t just keep the team’s position, but overtook every other team ahead of her’s in the water. She out-touched her competitors, helping bring her team to the top of the podium, all wearing gold medals, and of course, as is custom in Calgary, a cowboy hat.
