Ontario Junior International - December 2022
Twenty-one swimmers made the trek out to Scarborough, ON for the 2022 edition of the Ontario Junior International swim meet. This annual December event is the peak 18&U competition in Canada for the short course season. This year’s competition was back to its former quality and depth with the best of Canada along with a British National Junior team competing over the 3-day meet. Qualifying for the meet is often a big step, making finals and standing on the podium at this competition puts swimmers in the upper echelons in Canadian Junior swimming.
At the end of the 3-day competition, 21 UCSC swimmers came away with the Overall Team Title. Lorne Wigginton was awarded as Male Swimmer of the Meet for his 4:09 performance in the 400 IM - this bettered the club record previously held by Olympic medalist Curtis Myden (1992). Lorne and Aiden Norman tied for the Male Aggregate award. Aiden took the golds in the 100 and 200 backstroke races, both narrowly missing the National Age Group Records (for which he has another season to keep trying!). Lorne swept the IM’s and both men were part of National Age Group relay performances.
Throughout the course of the weekend, multiple records were broken. 3 National Age Group Records were smashed by the 15-17 UCSC Boys relay teams consisting of Addison Butler, Aiden Norman, Jett Verjee, Lorne Wigginton, Paul Dardis and Nicholas Duncan. These 6 Swimmers participated in breaking the 4x200 Free National Age Group Record, 4x100 Free NAG Record, and the 4x100 Medley Relay NAG Record.
27 Provincial Records were broken over the course of the weekend. Kamryn Cannings, Maxine Clark, Paul Dardis, Nicholas Duncan, Aiden Norman, Sienna Rodgers, Jett Verjee, Addison Butler and Lorne Wigginton all participated in the breaking of a Provincial record.
More than 50 UCSC Club Records were broken over the 6 session competition. A few of them were broken multiple times. Two-thirds (14) of the UCSC swimmers in the competition were part of record-breaking performances. New to the record board was Kealeigh McLeod whose 1500 Free club record broke former swimmer and coach Mandy Bell’s 2004 standard. Maxine Clark took down one of the oldest records on the women’s side. Her 800 Free surpassed Erin Hollands 1988 mark. Notably, Paul Dardis’ 1:45.89 time in the 200 Freestyle would have made him a prospective relay swimmer for Team Canada at the Melbourne SC World Championships.
The meet was wrapped up with a National Junior Team Relay camp starting early Monday morning with swimmers: Maxine Clark, Kamryn Cannings, Lorne Wigginton, Aiden Norman, Paul Dardis, and Addison Butler. The session consisted of two test sets in the pool as well as some relay takeover rehearsal and some data analysis of relay performances and strategy.
The takeaway from the weekend is that the Dinos have picked up from where we left off last season in Montreal (National Champions). Our swimmers managed themselves very professionally and supported each other as great teams do. Special thanks to our team manager at the meet, Kerstin Clark. She took care of all the ‘off deck’ details and made for a stress-free, positive team environment. Coaches Ray Betuzzi and Jarod Tsang were invaluable in managing our team through warm ups, cool downs and performances. Our staff worked together well and came away tired but proud of the efforts from our swimmers.
Enjoy a restful holiday break. Enjoy time with your families and see you all in the New Year.
Go Dinos!
Check out this Swim Swam Article on the weekend's record-breaking relays.