Jess Sudbury provided icing on the cake during the first home swim meet of the season. The second year swimmer won the 50 metre freestyle (FR) and fly and qualified for the national championships, while her teammates on the men’s and women’s side handily defeated the Waterloo Warriors, 156.5 to 124.5 and 172 to 98 respectively.

“Sudbury has shown tremendous improvement from last year,” said coach Byron MacDonald, who credited much of her early success this season to her hard training during the off-season. He says the meet was a tuneup for next weekend’s Provincial Divisional meet in Ottawa.

Despite having recently returned from a grueling high-altitude training camp in Arizona, Liz Warden showed her versatility and speed while capturing gold in the 100 breaststroke (BR), 400 FR and 50 backstroke (BK). Julie Gravelle, Jen Button, and Iris Elliot were also key contributors. Both MacDonald and assistant coach Linda Kiefer seemed pleased, although not surprised, by the teams’ performance at the meet. According to MacDonald, things are progressing according to plan, and he expects that the team will be ready to swim fast when it counts at the upcoming Provincial Divisional Meet.

Both MacDonald and Kiefer seemed to feel confident that the women’s team will be able to capture the Campbell divisional title despite the absence of many key members who will be away competing at the World Championships. In fact, MacDonald claimed that this might even be a positive thing for the women’s team because it will force some of the other swimmers to step up their performance. The men, who will not be missing any of their members, are expected to easily win their divisional title.

Men’s rookie Scott Briggs was exceptional in qualifying for nationals, winning both the 100 BK and 50 BK, and placing second in the 50 fly. Peter Szaflarski, who also attended the high altitude training camp, captured gold in the 50 FR, 200 FR and 800 FR. Also instrumental was team captain Nick Dargus, winning gold in the 100 fly and 200 BK, and a bronze in the 50 FR. Rookies Matt Liberatore and Chris Keong each picked up a gold in the 100 FR and 200 BR respectively. Gravelle looked in fine form with easy wins in the 200 FR and 100 fly. In addition, she managed a second place finish in the 200 BR, one of her weaker events.

Button also put in a strong showing with a win in the 100 BK, and a bronze medal in the 200 indvidual medley (I.M.), as well as swimming on both of the Blues winning relay teams. Not to be outdone by the veterans, rookie sprinter Iris Elliot picked up a gold in the 100 FR, a silver in the 200 I.M., and was a member of the winning 4X50 FR relay.

Also making contributions to the win were Lindsay Chislom, Angella Nardella, and Rebecca Applebaum.