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Lloydminster Aquanaut Newspaper Articles.

Kelly breaking records, again

Josh Aldrich
Wednesday June 22, 2005
Lloydminster Meridian Booster

It didn’t take long at all for Jessica Kelly to return to the form she left off on last year.

In just her second meet of the season Kelly was back at breaking records, and the scary thing is this was a record she did not mean to break.

In just her second event of the day – while trying to get ready for the 50-metre freestyle later in the day – she found herself in a dog-fight for first place in the 100-metre back stroke and her competitive side took over and drove to the end. At the time she had no idea she was on a pace for a provincial record, but when she touched the wall she realized she had shaved four tenths of a second off the previous mark.

“I looked up on the board and smiled, and looked for my dad in the crowd to see what he was thinking too,” said Kelly. “He was pretty excited, he gives his little thumbs up.”

She credits new Aquanauts coach Tyler Totman for having her ready to go this early in the season, as he really pushed the conditioning button with all of his swimmers – in fact just about every swimmer set new personal bests. In addition to her new record, Kelly set three other personal bests in the 50-metre fly, the 50-metre freestyle and the 200-metre individual medley.

“Tyler’s a good coach,” said Kelly, 14. “They have really worked on our endurance. I have totally stepped it up and I can tell from last year to this year, my endurance is 10-times better then it was at this time last year.”

It was a great meet by all of the swimmers though, and a number of them left with aggregate medals. Rebekah Cavanagh won silver in the girls seven and eight flight; Kelly won gold in the girls 13 and 14 level; A.J. Mokelky won gold in the boys 13 and 14 division, while Brayden Wells won bronze; Haley Howland earned gold in the girls 15 and 16 level; Cory Totman took home silver in the boys 15 and 16 flight; and Jonathan Smyth was golden in the boys 17-and-over group.

Totman is excited about what this year may bring for the swim club after watching two very successful meets for the Aquanauts – in Vermilion the week before.

“It is very encouraging because you know as the season goes on they’re only going to get faster and faster,” said Totman. “If they keep dropping times like they are now, we will have a very strong team come provincials and regionals.

“This is one of the strongest teams I have seen in my 15 years in Lloyd swimming.”
Their next meet is this weekend in Edmonton at the Camrose and Millennium Marlins swim meet and Totman is expecting more of the same from his team.

“Expectations are high as always,” said Totman. “We’ll be sending a slightly smaller contingent. It will be mostly older swimmers at this one, it will be very interesting to see how they do. It should be a good meet.”