Swim meets take a dive this summer

By Jonathan Guignard

Guij26@gmail.com

Swim meets in the community won’t be as competitive as in years past.

Stirling and Cardston haven’t formed a club, and therefor will not host or participate in swim meets.

In previous years, Stirling, Cardston, Magrath and Raymond have each hosted a swim meet which has made for stronger competition.

Raymond and Magrath have continued with their swim meets, but Geralyn L’Heureux, president of the Magrath Swim Club, says it won’t be the same without Stirling and Cardston.

“It makes it a real challenge for us. Traditionally we’ve had four meets, which has been really nice. It’s tough because we want to offer a swimming competition. It’s fun with just your own club, but it’s not quite the same as competing against another club,” said L’Heureux.

Strong competition can be a lot of fun, but can also help swimmers improve their craft.

“It get’s the rivalry going and it really improves the times for the kids when they are racing against other clubs,” said L’Heureux.

The person who has been running the Stirling Swim Club for the last 10 years, decided she wasn’t going to continue with the club. There hasn’t been anybody who’s been able to take over that roll.

“Honestly, we don’t have anybody here who know hows to do it right now” said head guard Haydn Selk. “It’s too bad, because it would give them more motivation to practice.”

The lack of kids in the club is in another reason Stirling hasn’t been really pushing the idea.

“We only have five kids in our club, so it doesn’t seem very productive at this point,’’ said Selk.

Due to renovations, it’s been three years since Cardston hasn’t been participating in the swim meets. The Cardston pool have yet to install swimming blocks in their pool and aren’t able to participate again this year.

An option for L’Heureux has been to join the Alberta Summer Swim Association which would offer swimmers more swim meets. However, the cost of joining may be a problem.

“Our club is considering whether or not to join the ASSA, we have to really look at the seriously because it would mean our fees would go up,” said L’Heureux. “We need to find out what the parents would feel about that.”

As for now, Raymond and Magarth will be the only teams battling it out in the pool this summer. It’s a rivalry that is all to familiar in this part of Alberta.

“Raymond is the toughest for the most part and they’ve been really good competition for the kids,” said L”Heureux.

The latest swim meet was held in Raymond last Saturday and the next one will take place in Magrath on August 13.

Get More Westwind Weekly →