Jessica Sanftleben's third place finish in the 50m freestyle event, led the way for the Yorkton Speed Swimming Club at a recent Saskatoon swim meet.
Her time of 31.73 seconds gave her the bronze and brought her within 0.13 seconds of an "AA Time Standard," the required time to qualify for the Manitoba vs Saskatchewan, "Man-Sask Meet," coming up in the summer.
Seven swimmers from the Yorkton club took part in the recent Saskatoon Septathlon. The meet took place in the beautiful Shaw Centre, a 10 lane, 50m pool that was built for the 1989 Canada Summer Games in Saskatoon.
The septathlon format of the meet had all swimmers take part in seven events. Points were awarded per race based on the swimmer's age, placing and time.
"The neat thing about this swim meet," explains coach Ashley Benko, "is that it forces our swimmers to swim in some events that are a little out of their comfort zone, and they really grow from the experience."
New events and very stiff competition from over 300 athletes competing with fifteen clubs representing all three prairie provinces set the stage for some very fast times.
The Yorkton swimmers responded in fantastic fashion with every swimmer in attendance improving their PB (personal best) time in at least two races.
A few of the younger swimmers like Austin Roberts and Zoe Flaman improved their times in six of their seven races.
Connor Watrych, Emma Just, and Jennifer Haczkewicz improved their PBs in five of their races.
"Our swimmers' times continue to fall in competition because we continue to work hard in practice and push each other," added Benko.
In terms of registering huge improvements, Connor Watrych and Emma Just stole the show at the meet, according to coach Benko. Watrych erased a massive 47 seconds off of his previous best time in the 12-and-under boys' category in the 100m freestyle event.
He followed that up by shaving 22 seconds of off his 50m freestyle time. Just followed in her teammates footsteps by recording a whopping 31 second improvement in her under 11 girls' 200m freestyle time.
Another sign of improvement that Benko has seen this season been the number of swimmers reaching an "A Standard" time during the course of the winter. "I was extremely pleased to see that Jillian Just recorded her first 'A Time' in the very tough 12 and under girls' category at this meet.
She swam a time of 1:49.21 in the 100m breaststroke event to reach the standard. Jillian has been working very hard all winter and I'm glad to see it paying off!" says Benko.
Haczkewicz also impressed her coach at the meet. "Jen recorded three new 'A Standard' times in events that haven't been her strongest races in the past," says Benko.
"I am most impressed with her 50m freestyle swim where she broke 37 seconds, recording a time of 36.49 seconds," Benko added, "she is now only 0.41 seconds away from recording her second 'AA Standard' time." As the season begins to wind down, the Yorkton club has two more meets left to attend.
"We have a meet in Regina coming up in May, followed by an outdoor meet in Moose Jaw later in June which wraps up the season," Benko reported.
A few swimmers are going to attend a meet in Winnipeg late in May. The "Man-Sask" meet for those who qualify, will be held in Winnipeg this July.
-Submitted
