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Lloydminster Aquanaut Newspaper Articles.

Aquanauts prepare for regionals, provincials

Josh Aldrich
Booster Sports Editor
Wednesday, August 11, 2004

Lloydminster Meridian Booster — The time for any team to be peaking is heading into playoffs. Or in the case of swimmers, that would be regionals and provincials, and the Lloydminster Aquanauts are doing just that.

After a strong showing two weekends ago at the Alberta Summer Games, they followed that up with another one in Edmonton this past weekend. Their efforts were highlighted by their two aggregate medals: a silver from Brianna Wells in the girls nine and 10-year-old category and a bronze from her sister Britt in the six and under category.

“Everyone did really well at the meet,” said coach Keegan Rutherford, 17. “There was some really good swims by all of our kids. It just depends on a lot of the different age groups, where if the kid is at the bottom of their age group, they’re not always going to get the gold medal, but they always improve their times and that’s really good to me.”

This sets them up well heading into regionals this weekend back in Edmonton, where they are expecting a few more medals, this time from the likes of Jonathan Smyth and Jessica Kelly, in addition to the two Wells sisters, among others.

“The ones who go on to provincials are going to be the ones who have been training a lot,” said Rutherford. “It also depends on age group, because if you are at the top of your age group, you definitely have the advantage over somebody who just came into your group. I think all of our swimmers have a really good chance at making it on into provincials, they’ve all be training really well.”

Those who make standard at regionals will qualify for provincials the following weekend, also in Edmonton.

This has been a lot of highly competitive swimming in consecutive weeks for the Aquanauts, but they don’t expect fatigue to be a problem. In actuality, instead of taking it easy heading into the two final meets of the season, Rutherford is taking the opposite approach.

“I don’t think there’s any concern about tiring. Once we get back, I plan on doing some harder (training) at the beginning of the week to keep them building on their endurance. In the few days leading up to regionals and provincials, I plan to let them take it easy and to give them that little time before the meet to rest up and to allow their bodies to recuperate.”