Twelve Juan de Fuca Royals are headed to provincials in Kamloops this weekend after posting lightning-quick times at the Vancouver Island regionals.
“I’ve been head coach for the past five years and we’ve never had more than 10, so having double digits is really exciting for us,” said head coach Sean Hunter.
Collectively the club accumulated 41 personal bests at regionals.
Among the fastest were 15-year-old Vivienne Nguyen, who won gold in 50 and 100 metre butterfly, and 10-year-old Genevieve Bacon, a silver and bronze medalist in freestyle events.
The girls’ medley relay team also won gold in Division 6. Some other relay teams will head to Kamloops as automatic qualifiers.
The provincials cap a busy summer for the club, which only meets for a maximum of two weekly swims during the winter before going full-on in the summer.
“[They spend] between 9 to 12 hours in the pool. They’re doing anywhere between 15 to 20 kilometres per week,” Hunter noted.
While this season is coming to a close, the Royals are keen to have more swimmers join the club. Parents interested in enrolling their kids with the organization can contact Hunter at seanhunter@shaw.ca.