The Merritt Otters continued their buildup towards the regional championships in just over two weeks time with some terrific results in Salmon Arm this past weekend.

Twenty-six Otters participants set a total of 52 personal best times over the course of the two-day competition en route to 68 top-eight finishes and four aggregate awards.

Leading the way in the PB department were Div. 2 swimmers Kendra Marklund and Paige Asselstine with five and four new personal best times respectively.

Two of Marklund’s PBs were by a stunning 15 seconds each, in the 50m butterfly and 100m freestyle events.

Also recording double-digit improvements in their times were a pair of up-and-coming Div. 1 swimmers: Sarah Parno in the100m individual medley and Kailyn Fleury in the 100m freestyle.

Asselstine’s fine performances on the weekend (two silver, a bronze and six top-eight finishes in total) caught her coach completely by surprise.

“She came out of nowhere and challenged in every final,” Leroy Slanzi said. “She was often in the outside lane and wound up neck and neck with the top swimmers in lanes three and four.”

For her efforts, Asselstine earned the second-place silver aggregate medal in her age division.

Paige’s mom, Helen, a first-year competitive swimmer, also won a silver aggregate medal after placing well in all of her Div. 8 races.

The gold-medal aggregate winner for Div. 8 was another Merritt swimmer, Koren Lefebvre. She had five top-eight finishes, including a bronze medal in the 50m butterfly.

The Otters had another gold-medal aggregate winner in Bianca Cavaliere. The Div. 3 swimmer picked up a silver and three bronze medals on her way to the all-around title.

“I was pretty amazed at our results from the Salmon Arm meet,” coach Slanzi said, “as our training goal last week and this coming week (Challenge Week) is to absolutely exhaust the swimmers to see if they can maintain their technique even when they feel like rocks in the water.”

The Otters are in Penticton this weekend for their final meet before the Regionals in Kamloops on August 8 and 9.