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11 Orangeville Otters qualify for provincials

April 20, 2020   ·   0 Comments

The Orangeville Otters Swim Club had a good finish at the Ontario Swimming Championships in March.

Eleven Otters swimmers qualified for provincial championship competition held at the Toronto Pan AM Sports Centre in Scarborough.

The Club placed 12th in over all points. Seven swimmers placed in the top ten, qualifying for the finals in their events.

While all Otters swimmers had excellent races, there were a few stand-out performances in the water.

Alexander Bowen won the gold medal in 100m backstroke, repeating as the provincial champion, having won the event last summer.

He also earned a silver medal in the 200m backstroke.  

Evan Aguiar-Winter earned a silver medal in the 200m backstroke.

Abby Sostar, whose focus all season had been the Canadian Olympic Swimming Trials, won a silver medal in the 400m individual medley.

All three swimmers were set to attend the Canadian Olympic trials which were to be held at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre March 30 – April 5th but have since been cancelled.

Owen Jibb, Clare Bowen, and Rylee Fudge qualified for the Canadian Junior Championships which were to be held this July in Montreal.

Unfortunately, all remaining national and provincial competitions for the 2020-2021 season have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The entire Orangeville Otters Swim Club has achieved successes beyond any previous year. The club looks forward to continued success once it is deemed safe to resume club operations. 

Head Coach Rob Taylor had this to say about the team’s overall success:

“I am so very proud of what our team accomplished this season,” he said. “We were the victors at the Otters’ Fall Classic, McDonald’s Team Challenge, and for the first time in team history, the Huronia Regional Championships. We had two swimmers named as provincial champions this season: Matthew Blackwell and Alexander Bowen, but we really should have claimed three. Our team tied its highest finish at the Ontario Swimming Championships (12th) and I thought we would be able to place in the top ten in the province this summer, where we are always strongest. I am so very disappointed for swimmers and athletes everywhere, who have put in hours of focused work towards their goals but will not be able to compete at competitions this summer due to cancellations. I can only hope that they are able to return to their respective sports with the same passion with which they left those sports before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

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