Ontario Age Groups 2025 Meet Highlights

Ontario Age Groups 2025 Meet Highlights

The Barrie Trojans competed at the Ontario Age Groups meet Feb. 27 - Mar. 2, 2025. Our 14 year old and under swimmers raced at the Markham Pan Am Centre while our 15 year old and over and para athletes took to the waters of the The Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre. BTSC had 59 swimmers qualify for the events, an amazing achievement.
 

Day 1: February 27th

The day 1 preliminary races featured some great BTSC swims leading to spots in the finals where there was more great racing.

In Markham, Kaia Hornby used a Club record setting time of 2:24.89 to earn the gold medal 200M IM, breaking the Club record she set in her preliminary race. Avelyn Gregoric placed 7th in the same final. Will McConachie was the silver medallist in the boys 200M IM 14 year old event setting personal best times in his preliminary and finals races.

Clara Vilchez and Kenzie Sparrow both qualified for 50M freestyle finals where they finished in 8th and 10th respectively.

Kaia Hornby was on the top of the podium again in the 200M butterfly in another Club record setting time of 2:18.79. Her teammates, Avelyn Gregoric and Keira Hornby also swam in the finals race finishing 4th and 7th. Will McConachie continued to post best times and took 4th place in the boys 200M butterfly.

In the 1500M freestyle final for 13 year olds, Keira Hornby claimed the bronze medal, Marissa Battrick placed 5th and Emma Vaughan came in 9th. All 3 swimmers had times that were significant improvements over their seed times. For the girls 14 year old race, Harper Ferguson was the 5th place finisher and Molly Robinson finished 7th. 

For the boys 800M freestyle, Tate Devroom finished in 10th place.

Meanwhile at TPASC, Taira Vroom swam to a gold medal finish in the 1500M freestyle timed final while Shea Gillespie placed 7th.

In the 200M IM finals, Avery Knight used a best time to finish in 4th while Kaelyn Vroom placed 8th. Ben Millar qualified for the B final, finishing 5th in that race.

In the para 200M IM event, Kate Smith won the bronze medal and Alessa Darby established a new Ontario record for the event in the SM6 category with a time of 4:26.94.

In the 200M butterfly finals, Tyler Millar touched the wall 3rd overall to earn a bronze medal. His brother Ben accomplished the same feat, claiming the bronze medal in this race for his age category. Scotty Sutton placed 9th. Notably, Scotty achieved his first Canadian Trials qualifying time in the event.

Kate Smith and Alessa Darby placed 6th and 9th respectively in the 50M freestyle final.

Day 2: February 28th

In Markham, it was the first day of competition for the 12 year old and under swimmers in the afternoon.

Racing started with the 200M IM where Blayke Taylor, Sam Brundage and Kennedy Jackson finished 7th, 9th and 10th overall.

Blayke was right back in the pool for the next event, where she swam to a bronze medal finish in the 200M Fly. Maggie McConachie placed 9th overall.

In the 200M breaststroke, Sam Brundage and Rydaar Watt placed 6th and 7th respectively.

In the finals sessions later that evening, Avelyn Gregoric placed 5th and Marissa Battrick 8th in the 100M backstroke. In the 14 year old race, Clara Vilchez finished 6th.

The 400M freestyle bronze medal was awarded to Kaia Hornby. Marissa Battrick and Keira Hornby placed 6th and 7th in the same race. Will McConachie also earned a bronze medal for his 400M freestyle swim.

At TPASC, Kaelyn Vroom led off the night finishing 4th in the 100m breaststroke, moving up 3 places from the morning preliminary race.

Alessa Darby raced to the bronze medal in the 50M butterfly.

Avery Knight used a Club record setting time of 1:02.49 to reach the gold medal position on the 100M backstroke podium.

The bronze medal was awarded to Kate Smith for her 200M freestyle race and Alessa Darby finished 5th in the 400M freestyle. Taira Vroom reached the end of her 400M race second fastest to earn a silver medal and Griff Seguin was the bronze medallist for the boys 15 year old 400M freestyle. Scotty Sutton and Ben Millar earned spots in the B final where they finished 2nd and 5th.

Day 3: March 1st

The afternoon session for the youth swimmers in Markham began with the 400M freestyle where Blayke Taylor swam to a gold medal and Kennedy Jackson earned a bronze medal.

Sam Brundage clocked a 1:15.67 in the 100M breaststroke to establish a new Club record and claim the gold medal. Rydaar Watt placed 8th overall in his 100M breaststroke race.

Blayke Taylor touched in 2nd to take the silver medal and Eva Beaudry was an 8th place finisher in the 100M freestyle.

The afternoon wrapped up with 400M IM where Rydaar Watt placed 9th overall.

At finals for the junior swimmers, Kaia Hornby started BTSC off with a bronze medal in the 400M IM. Her time of 5:06.35 established a new Club standard for this event. Marissa Battrick and Avlyn Gregoric also qualified for this final where they finished 8th and 9th. For the junior boys, Will McCoanchie continued to swim personal bests and raced to a silver medal in his 400M IM.

BTSC swimmers at TPASC had some more great swims. 

Avery Knight set a new Club record of 2:16.46 in the 200M backstroke final propelling her to the top of the podium where she accepted a gold medal. Shea Gillespie earned a B final swim. Kate Smith placed 7th in her para 100M backstroke swim. Lucien Vilchez placed 6th and Evan Beatty and Nathan Vaughan finished 8th and 10th in their respective finals races. 

In the para 100M freestyle final Kate Smith and Alessa Darby swam to 5th and 8th place finishes.

In the 400M IM events that capped the evening, Taira Vroom is the silver medallist and Kaelyn Vroom placed 6th overall. Ben Millar had an excellent race, ultimately taking 8 seconds off his original seed time to finish 4th overall.

Day 4: March 2nd

In the last day of competition at TPASC, the afternoon session had distance swimming. Griff Geguin claimed the 1500M freestyle gold medal with a swim that was 17 seconds faster than his seed time. Taira Vroom took the bronze medal in the 800M freestyle while Shea Gillespie finished 9th in the event. Scotty Sutton finished 7th and Evan Beatty 9th in their 1500M races.

Shea Gillespie qualified for the 200M B final where she finished 9th. Griff Seguin and Lucien Vilchez finished 5th and 7th respectively in their 200M freestyle finals.

In the para 100M breaststroke, Kate Smith and Alessa Darby placed 6th and 7th.

Taira Vroom and Noemi Blake finished 5th and 10th in their respective 100M butterfly events. Tyler Millar took 6th spot in his 100M butterfly.

Kaelyn Vroom won the bronze medal in the 200M breaststroke final, jumping up one placement from preliminaries to get to the podium.

In Markham, the youth session in the afternoon began with the 200M freestyle where Kennedy Jackson placed 7th overall.

In the 100M butterfly, Blayke Taylor used a 9 second seed time improvement to earn the silver medal. 

Sam Brundage touched 3rd in the 50M freestyle to earn a bronze medal.

In the last event of the afternoon, the 800M freestyle, Blayke Taylor won another silver medal and Kennedy Jackson swam to a bronze medal finish. Maggie McCoanchie finished 5th overall. All three swimmers swam faster than their seed times.

The junior finals session started with distance events where Harper Ferguson placed 10th in the 800M freestyle.

Kaia Hornby established another Club record in 200M freestyle with a time of 2:08.91 to earn a silver medal. She accepted another silver medal for the 100M butterfly. Avelyn Gregoric had a great finals swim in the 100M butterfly to finish 4th and Keira Hornby placed 10th overall. Clara Vilchez also had an excellent 100M butterfly finals swim to place 4th in her age group.

Will McCoanchie claimed a silver medal in his 100M butterfly final with a new Club record time of 1:01.50. His new time eclipsed the Club record time he set in his preliminary race.

Avelyn Gregoric and Marissa Battrick joined each other on the 200M backstroke podium winning silver and bronze medals. Clara Vilchez finished 5th in her race.

As always, thank you to our Club sponsors, Jackson’s Toyota, Georgian BMW and Brandy’s Cove Yachting Centre. We are very thankful for their support in helping our BTSC athletes achieve great things.

Congratulations swimmers and coaches! Go Trojans!