2024 Spring Off the Blocks Highlights

BTSC hosted the Newmarket Stingrays, Whitby Swimming, the Uxbridge Swim Club and The North York Aquatic Club at our last home meet of the season, Spring Off the Blocks 2024. It was an exciting weekend of swimming with a full six sessions, lots of swimmers and lots of fans cheering from the stands. There were over 170 BTSC athletes competing.

One of the unique things about Spring Off the Blocks is that it gives some of our pre-competitive swimmers the opportunity to compete. Under the guidance of Coach Debbie, many Tiny Trojans swimmers called Spring Off the Blocks their first ever competitive swimming experience. The pre-competitive swimmers were allowed to pick their own events. Charles Douglas chose very well, placing first in his 50M backstroke event. Anne Bowman, McKenna Salo and Charlotte Clouthier swam 200m Breast. Charlotte placed first as she was the only 8 year old to try this event. Evelyn Meder placed 2nd in 50m Breast. Ainsley Kiser placed 3rd in both 50m Back and 50m Free. Henry Kang placed 3rd in 50m Breast also. Liam Rego's first event was 100m Fly and he was given a heat medal because he swam his entire 100m Medley without goggles! Sophie Adams, Sarah Leahy and Jacob Lewandowski swam 100m Medley. Mila Antiquera, Evelynne Johnston, Liam Rego, McKenna Salo swam 50m Fly in their first meet. Many swimmers placed in the top 8 of their events. Great job by Coach Debbie and her team of helpers (Coach Rhys Serre, Kylie Sarabura, Tate DeVroom, Avelyn Gregoric, Maggie McConachie, and Emma Vaughan) marshalling and encouraging our pre-competitive swimmers. Awesome first meet everyone and we hope it is the first of many competitive racing experiences! More highlights below.

There were many top 3 finishes for BTSC swimmers. The boys had 35 first place, 21 second place and 22 third place individual finishes. Boys relays racked up 3 first, 4 seconds and 1 third place result. For the girls, the top 3 finish total was 46 firsts, 40 seconds and 26 thirds. Girls relays were first 3 times, with 4 seconds and 1 third place. Well done to the whole BTSC team.

A big thank you to our meet management team, Cara Herrington (Meet Manager), Cathi Brown (Competition Coordinator) and Stephanie Tavitian-Guthrie (Volunteer/Officials Coordinator) for organizing a fantastic competition. Thanks to all of our officials and volunteers who helped at the meet. Thank you to Agnes House and her hospitality crew for feeding us so well all weekend. One of the great officiating highlights of the weekend was that five of the six sessions were refereed by different BTSC officials. Kelly McCrae, Laura Vaughan, Mark Vaughan, Christy McConachie and Stephanie Tavitin-Guthrie each stepped into the lead officiating role for one of the sessions. Thank you team and congratulations on an excellent job. There were also a number of BTSC parents/members (Mark McConachie, Cathie Gillespie, Kara Mankarios, Brianna Orava, Andrew Sutherland, Aimee Lococo-Sarabura, Laura Devroom, Erinn Rupay, Carmine Palermo, Reza Hakimian and Nathan Vaughan) who asked for formal evaluations as they work towards achieving various officials certifications. Thank you to all of these officials for their commitment to the future of swim meets hosted by the Barrie Trojan Swim Club.

And special shout out to Matt Creasor for achieving a Festivals qualifying time for his 100M backstroke!