2024 Summer Festivals and Ontario Youth Junior Championships Highlights

Alexandra Harrison

 

June 13 - 16, 2024 marked the start of the summer championship swim season with Festivals and Ontario Youth Junior (OYJ) Championships hosted at the Etobicoke Olympium and Markham Pan Am Centre respectively. BTSC was well represented at these events by swimmers who earned eligibility to compete by achieving the required time standards. Congratulations to all of the swimmers who represented BTSC for these championships!

 

 

Day 1

Sam Brundage broke a provincial record for 11 year old girls in the 100M breaststroke! Her time of 1:18.62 broke the previous time of 1:19.31. To put the time in perspective, Sam would have won the 12 year event at Festivals, and the 13 and 14 year old events at OYJs occurring on the same weekend. What a swim! Congratulations Sam!

  • The day started very well with the BTSC girls relay team of Marissa Battrick, Sam Brundage, Maggie McConachie and Blayke Taylor racing to a silver medal finish in the 4x50 medley relay, shaving over a second off their seed time in the process. The same team finished 4th in the 4x50M freestyle relay in a very tight race where the top 5 teams were separated by only 1.5 seconds.
  • Sam Brundage dominated the 100M breaststroke finishing in the gold medal position in her provincial record setting time of 1:18.62 and bettering her seed time by over a second.. Alexa Mackie finished 4th in the same race achieving a new personal best time.
  • Marissa Battrick earned a silver medal in the 400M IM in a personal best time of 5:39.42, 4.5 seconds better than her seed time.
  • Blayke Taylor finished 4th in the 100M butterfly and broke into the top 10 by placing 8th in the 200M freestyle. 
  • Tate DeVroom was a top 10 finisher placing 5th in the 100M butterfly.

Day 2

  • Another good start to a day with the 50M freestyle seeing Sam Brundage swim to a silver medal and Blayke Taylor place 6th out of 88 swimmers in the event.
  • Sam earned another breaststroke gold medal, this time in the 200M distance. She swam 3.5 seconds faster than her seed time and needed most of that to fend off the second place swimmer.
  • Marissa Battrick swam to a 400M freestyle gold with an amazing time of 4:52.81, an amazing 10 seconds faster than her seed time. A silver medal was awarded to Marissa for a great 100m backstroke swim. Tate DeVroom finished 8th overall in the same event for the boys. 
  • Blayke Taylor placed 6th in the 400M freestyle.
  • Nathan Orava placed 7th and Raevyn Maule finished 10th in the 200M butterfly.
  • Emma Vaughan was 9th in the 400M freestyle.

Day 3

  • Marissa Battrick added to her medal haul with a gold in the 200M backstroke and 800M freestyle and bronze in the 200M IM. Marissa swam a 14 second personal best time to reach the top of the 800M podium.
  • Blayke Taylor went 22 seconds faster than her seed time to claim a bronze medal in the 800M freestyle.
  • Sam Brundage took 6 seconds off her best 200M IM time to finish 5th in her race.
  • Sam Brundage and Blayke Taylor were top 10 finishers in the 100M freestyle coming in 6th and 8th respectively.
  • Tate DeVroom placed 7th overall in the 800M freestyle and 8th in his 200M backstroke.

 


 

Day 1

  • Eva Mankarios came third in the 200M breaststroke. Tori Carlesimo finished 6th in the same race.
  • The girls 14 and under team of Maddy Scott-Nichols, Tori Carlesimo, Eva Mankarios and Kylie Sarabura finished 7th in the 4x50 medley relay.
  • Will McConachie finished 7th in the 800M freestyle and Shea Gillespie finished 10th in the girls race.

Day 2

  • Will McConachie beat the rest of the field in the 100M butterfly to earn a gold medal improving upon his #2 seed entering the race.
  • Shea Gillespie swam to a bronze medal finish in the 1500M freestyle.
  • Maddy Scott-Nichols finished 5th, Dorothy Dong 6th and Dylan George 7th in the 200M freestyle.
  • Keira Hornby came 5th in the 100M butterfly. Maddy Scott-Nichols was 9th for her age group in the same race.

Day 3

  • Keira Hornby took over 3 seconds off her seed time to swim to a 200M butterfly gold medal.
  • Will McConachie matched this feat for the boys race earning gold and winning by more than 4 seconds. The 200M butterfly continued to be kind to BTSC swimmers with Alex Ottodinoto earning a bronze medal.
  • Eva Mankarios finished 7th in the 100M breaststroke.

Day 4

  • Will McConachie finished 4th in the 200M IM.
  • Dorthy Dong placed 6th in the 400M freestyle and Keira Hornby and Shea Gillespie were top ten finishers for the same event in their age groups placing 8th and 9th.

Congratulations to Will McCoanchie for achieving Ontario Swimming Championship standards in the 100M and 200M butterfly.

Thank you to our coaches for supporting the BTSC athletes throughout the weekend. Congratulations again to all of the swimmers for their achievements! Go TROJANS!