Over 300 swimmers representing more than a dozen Interior and Lower Mainland clubs are expected to descend upon the Nicola Valley this weekend for the annual Merritt Otters Invitational Swim Meet.
Action runs Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. with preliminaries in the morning each day and finals in the afternoon.
The Otters, who are coached by Leroy Slanzi, will be out in force at their home meet with close to 30 entrants.
Merritt swimmers have been busy the past two weekends, attending meets in Lumby June 20 to 21 and Kelowna June 27 to 28.
In Lumby, every one of the 10 Merritt swimmers in attendance achieved one or more personal best times.
Leading the way were Sarah and Abbi Thoms with three PBs each. Another highlight was Jensen Cavaliere’s second-place finish in the Div. 5 girls’ 100-metre backstroke event.
The Kelowna meet was the first on the summer schedule to have heats followed by finals. The top eight swimmers in each event made the A final, while finishers nine through 16 qualified for the B final.
Over 380 swimmers competed at the Kelowna meet, with many coming from Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island clubs.
The Merritt Otters had 15 swimmers at the Kelowna competition. Between them, they achieved 25 top-eight finishes, and eight top-three placings.
Winner of a gold medal was six-year-old Evi Slanzi in the boys’ 25-metre butterfly event.
Silver-medal winners were Isaac Asselstine (50-metre freestyle) and Bianca Cavaliere (50-metre freestyle and 50-metre butterfly), while bronze medals went to Asselstine (50-metre butterfly), Jensen Cavaliere (50-metre butterfly) and Rahul Chhabra (50-metre butterfly and 100-metre freestyle).
Bianca Cavaliere’s second-place finish in the 50-metre butterfly was a new club record.
“We set a goal last year of seeing the Otters’ logo mixed in with the stronger clubs when it came down to the finals of events,” head coach Slanzi said. “We’re achieving that goal.”
