Pickering athletes hot at Winter Swim Fest

PICKERING -- Members of the Pickering Swum Club did their best to spend as little time in the pool as possible during a recent meet.

The Winter Swim Fest was held at the Pickering Recreation Complex, with 11 teams from the GTA, Kingston and Belleville competing.

The Pickering club had 118 athletes participating and they took almost 2,800 seconds off of personal best times. Over the course of the meet, 297 best times were logged, with Savannah Lashbrook taking 205.07 seconds off her personal bests while swimming in seven races.

Club records were also set in five different events, with Emily Mayer turning in a pair of records. Swimming in the female 11-12 year old category, Emily took three-and-a-half seconds off the 100-metre individual medley record, finishing in one minute, 12.06 seconds, topping the record set in 2007 Winter Swim Fest by Meghan Toswell.

Emily also set a new record in the 200m IM, with a time of 2:33.89, replacing the record established by Danielle Gomba in 2005.

Philip Kay also set two new club records in the male 9-10 year old category. In the 200m freestyle, Philip swam to a time of 2:36.49, topping his own record set just before Christmas

In the 400m IM, Philip turned in a time of 6:24.97, almost five seconds faster than the previous time of Alex Griffith.

Warren Mayer set the other club record when he knocked almost 15 seconds off the record set in the 800m freestyle by Alex Griffith, with a time of 11:52.88.

Nine Pickering swimmers also won the high point award in their respective age groups for top finishes in their events. They were Philip Kay, Warren Mayer, Amy Smith (11 year old), Shaun Kanycz (11 year old), Emily Mayer, Andrew Kay (12 year old), Jaime Baylon (13 year old), Meghan Toswell (14 year old), and Michelle Spencer (15 and over).

The club's next meet is the Speedo Western Canadian Championships in Edmonton from Feb. 11 to 15. Nine swimmers will take part -- Jose Baylon, Ainsley Corkum, Adam Gomba, Caroline Gomba, Alison Russell, Hollie Smith, Michelle Spencer, Meghan Toswell and Katie Webster.