The Canadian Western championships, held at the new Shaw Centre in Saskatoon, seem to be gaining momentum as the meet goes along.  Day three finals saw a number of Alberta athletes breaking provincial records in numerous events as well as very strong performances by Alberta clubs in both the total team standings and medal count. 

Day three got underway with Edmonton Olympians Luke Peddie adding to his gold medal tally with a win in the 100 freestyle finishing in 50.82.  On the girls side of the event Alberta's first provincial record of the evening with Alberta Marlin Bailey Sloan breaking a 10 year old provincial record in the 13-14 year old age group.  Bailey finished her race in 56.56 to knock 3/10ths off the record formally held by Alexandra Lys.

Lindsay Delmar was the next Alberta athlete to set a provincial record.  Lindsay, who represents the University of Calgary club, broke her own provincial record in the 200 butterfly.  Her time of 2:11.46 takes half a second off her previous record set earlier this season.  In the boys 200 fly finals Cascade teammates Thomas Jobin and Karl Wolk won the 16 & under and 17 & over events.

The girls 200 backstroke opened with another win for Calgary's Cascade Swim Club with Brooklyn Snodgrass setting a provincial record in 2:09.27.  Brooklyn, who won the 15 and over event while swimming  three seconds clear of the field, knocked four tenths off the record held by Olympian Swim Clubs Deanna Matthews.  The girls 16 and older gave Deanna a chance to respond.  At the 150 mark Deanna was six tenths behind the pace of Brooklyn but Deanna last 50 was very quick taking back her provincial record and winning the age group in a time of 2:09.02.  On the boys side Olympians Braeden Newton won the 17 and older age group over fast charging Cascadian Karl Wolk with a time of 2:00.26.

Brooklyn Snodgrass	Deanna Matthews

In the 50 breaststroke Edmonton Keyano's Patricia Pierse took the win in the 15 and under category finishing in 32.95.  In the 16 and older age group Medicine Hat's Tianna Rissling won the 17 and older age group in a very fast 31.34.  For the boys another Keyano athlete, Nick Kostiuk, won the 50 breaststroke event in the 16 and under category.  

The 400 freestyle event showed Alberta dominance in the pool with Alberta swimmers sweeping the medals in three of the four events.  The 15 and under girls finished with Keyano's Mercedes Sloan clocking in at 4:15.64.  Natasha Fung of the Edmonton Olympian club earned a come from behind finish in the 16 and over 400 freestyle event, moving from third to first on the final 50 to stop the clock at 4:14.29.  The top three athletes in this event (Natasha Fung, Lindsay Delmar and Sarah Sumner) all finished within one second of a 26 year old record held by Donna McGinnis.  On the boys side Cascade swept the medals with provincial record holder Chad Bobrosky leading the charge from the first 50 and not letting up.  Chad finished in 3:51.40 ahead of teammates James Kendrick and Tom Krywitsky.

The final event of the evening saw the Cascade foursome of James Kendrick, Christopher Dalen, Karl Wolk and Daniel Blattler win the 400 medley relay in 3:47.32.  On the womens side Olympian Swim Club, while finishing second, knocked two tenths off their own provincial record in the 15-17 age category.  Deanna Matthews, Kristan Kushlyk, Lori Layne Kremer and Natasha Fung finished in a final time of 4:12.02.

The final day of racing is tomorrow, Sunday February 21, 2010.

For Live Results - https://www.swimming.ca/liveresults/10speedowestern/

Combined Team Scores

Provincial Medal Tally