Dozen provincial medals for Kelowna/West Kelowna swim club

Pierson Piche garnered eight medals and teammates Christina Russo added two gold and a bronze to lead the newly-formed Kelowna West Kelowna Integrated Club to an outstanding performance at the B.C. triple-A long course swimming championships in Victoria on the weekend.

Competing in the 11-and-under boys division, Piche posted personal-best times in every swim while claiming gold in the 100 backstroke with a PB time of 1:10.97. He added provincial silver medals in the 100-, 200- and 400-metre freestyle events, the latter second-place finish seeing Piche knock 17 seconds off his previous best time. Other silver-medal efforts came in the 200 backstroke and 200 individual medley while he added bronze in the 800 free and 400 individual medley (14 seconds better than his previous PB).

Russo, 21, swam to gold in the senior 50- and 100-metre butterfly finals with times of 28.34 and 1:01.89 respectively while adding a bronze (swimming the butterfly leg) in the 200 medley relay with teammates Axana Merckx (back), Emily Epp (breast) and Jessica Forbes (free).

Meanwhile, the KWIC’s Kierra Smith, preparing for the Olympic Games in Rio, earned a gold in her speciality — the 100 breaststroke — with a clocking of 1:09.43. Her personal best is 1:06.93, set at the Canadian Olympic Trials in April.

The KWIC’s Liam Collie, participating in his first provincial meet, placed fourth in the 11-and-under 200 butterfly in a time of 2:47.79 while finishing fifth in the 800 free (10:58:03) and sixth in the 100 butterfly (1:16.95). All times were personal bests.

Other Kelowna West Kelowna swimmers making it to A finals were Merckx, Forbes, Molly Hill and Paige Foster while Lucy Hill, Jasper Stone and Taylor Smith swam one shy of 100 per cent best times.

Foster, Stone and Forbes also posted qualifying times for the national age-group championships in Calgary at the end of the month, joining three other members of the KWIC who have already qualified.