A total of 25 members of the Merritt Otters Swim Club attended the Okanagan regional championships at the H20 Pool in Kelowna on the weekend. No fewer than 14 of them have qualified for the BCSSA provincial meet in Kamloops from August 15 to 17.
“It was a great weekend,” Otters head coach Chelsea Harris said on Monday. “Everyone did really well.”
Individual event qualifiers to Provincials are Otters Div. 1 swimmers Ashley Cavaliere (50-metre butterfly and 100-metre freestyle) and Miranda Cavaliere (50-metre freestyle, 50-metre backstroke and 50-metre breaststroke), along with Div. 3 swimmer Bianca Cavaliere (50-metre and 100-metre freestyle and 100-metre individual medley), Div. 7 swimmer and Otters assistant coach Dierdre Holmwood (50-metre freestyle) and Div. 8 swimmer Koren Lefebvre (50-metre freestyle).
The Merritt Otters also had four of their relay teams qualify for Provincials, all in Division 5.
Bianca Cavaliere, Jensen Cavaliere, Jamie Neill and Laura Lefebvre will be swimming the girls 200-metre freestyle relay event.
The two Cavalieres and Neill will be joined by Haley Zabek in the 200-metre medley relay.
Evin and Gabe Baird, along with Rahul Chhabra and Mathias Redknap will team up to swim the boys 200-metre freestyle and medley relays.
Ashley and Miranda Cavaliere, as well as Neill all established personal bests (PBs) at the regional meet in Kelowna, as did Otters Evi Slanzi and Ayla Redknap in the six-and-under age group, and Cruz Slanzi and Isaac Asselstine in Div. 1.
