Members of the Merritt Otters swim club spent their weekend escaping the scorching sun beneath the water at the Nicola Valley Aquatic Centre. This was no leisurely dip, however.

This was one of the Otters’ competitive summer swim meets.

“It was a great meet,” said the Otters’ coach, Iris Cheng.

“It ran really smoothly—we had really great volunteers and there was a lot of fast swimming.”

Merritt’s competitors, ranging in age from six to17, swam hard, leaving it all in the pool, says Cheng.

Nine teams from around the Okanagan and Thompson regions gathered in Merritt this weekend for the last competition before the regionals, which will be held in Kamloops during the first weekend in

August. There were about 150 swimmers at the meet.

The Otters have been training hard all summer, with sometimes as many as two practices a day, including dry-land training.

“We just came off of hell week, or challenge week,” explained Cheng.

“So they had some really hard training in them—they definitely stepped up and swam their hearts out for this meet.”

Cheng will remain in Merritt for the rest of the summer before heading back to the University of

British Columbia where she studies human kinetics and swims for the varsity team.

The full results of the meet were as follows:

100m/200m IM:

2nd Dylan Carmichael (-3 secs)

2nd Taylor Carmichael

2nd Alex Rubner

50m Free:

3rd Bianca Cavaliere (-3 sec)

5th Reese Paterson (-2 sec)

3rd Dylan Carmichael

3rd Kenzie Rubner

50m Back:

4th Bianca Cavaliere

3rd Brennan O'Flaherty

9th Cassie O'Flaherty (-8 sec)

2nd Dylan Carmichael (-4 sec)

3rd Cameron Thompson

1st - 100m Back Taylor Carmichael (-3 sec in a Provincial Qualifying Time *PQT* of 1:16.60)

1st - 100m Back Alex Rubner

50m Fly:

4th Reese Paterson (Best time)

2nd Dylan Carmichael (-5 sec)

2nd Taylor Carmichael

1st - 100m Fly Alex Rubner (in a PQT) >Alex was also 1st in her 50m Fly

50m Breast:

4th Reese Paterson (-7 sec)

4th Cassie O'Flaherty (best time)

2nd Dylan Carmichael (-2 sec)

2nd Erin Thomsen (-2 sec)

2nd - 100m Breast Alex Rubner

100m Freestyle:

3rd Reese Paterson (-23 sec)

6th Laura Lefebvre (-5 sec)

8th Cassie O'Flaherty (-12 sec)

3rd Dylan Carmichael (-11 sec)

2nd Kenzie Rubner

2nd Taylor Carmichael (in a new Otters record of 1:09.39)

2nd Alex Rubner

200m Medley Relay:

1st Div 2 Girls: Jensen Cavaliere, Laura Lefebvre, Bianca Cavaliere, Cassie O'Flaherty

1st Div 4 Girls: Ravyn Cheney, Taylor Carmichael, Erin Thomsen, Kenzie Rubner

2nd Div 8 Girls: Koren Lefebvre, Kerrigan Selman, Alex Rubner, Reese Paterson

200m Freestyle Relay:

1st Div 2 Girls: Jensen Cavaliere, Laura Lefebvre, Bianca Cavaliere, Cassie O'Flaherty

2nd Div 4 Girls: Ravyn Chaney, Erin Thomsen, Kenzie Rubner, Reese Paterson

3rd Div 8 Girls: Koren Lefebvre, Iris Cheng, Alex Rubner, Kerrigan Selman