Camryn Stannard of the Ravensong Breakers Swim Club recently set a Canadian age-group record in one event and became the fastest 11-year-old in the country in another during the Speedo Far Western Long-course Swimming Championships in Concord, California.
Megan Romkes, another of the four members of the Breakers who competed, brought home a sixth-place finish in the girls’ 16-under 200-metre butterfly.
Stannard netted a silver medal in the girls 12-under 400-metre individual medley on the opening day. Her time of 5 minutes, 19.56 seconds is the fastest by a Canadian swimmer in her age group this year. That time shaved nearly 11 seconds from her qualifying time and gave Stannard second place in the 12-under division to Mia Rankin of the Phoenix Swim Club. She was the only 11-year-old among the top seven finishers in the final.
On Thursday, Stannard earned silver in the 50M butterfly, in a new Canadian age-group record of 29.51. She lopped more than a second off her qualifying heat time of 30.74 seconds, which gave her the seventh seed into the finals. The eight finals qualifiers were separated by just 52-hundredths of a second. The race was won by Yelin Tahk of California.
“This is a great start on the long road to being a top-rated Canadian national swimmer,” Breakers coach John Campbell said.
Stannard wrapped up a busy week of competition by reaching her third finals heat in Sunday’s 100-metre butterfly. She finished eighth, in 1:09.23, after qualifying with the sixth-best mark of 1:09.34 in preliminary heats.
Romkes, 16, was coming off an April appearance in the Canadian Olympic Swimming Trials. Racing for the first time Saturday, she earned a spot in the finals of the girl’s 16-under 200M butterfly with a 2:28.33 clocking. She lowered that time to 2:26.08 in the finals to claim sixth place.
Stannard and Romkes were joined in the five-day meet by Breakers teammates Jack Confortin and Jakob Brager.
In other racing on the opening day, Stannard narrowly missed a spot in the 100M freestyle finals, earning an alternate berth with a 10th-place finish in qualifying in 1:04.34. Confortin, 15, placed 13th in qualifying in the boys open 1,500 metres, in a time of 17:31.63.
Stannard also posted a 1:13.97 clocking in the girls 12-under 100M backstroke. That placed her 17th in qualifying among 35 entrants.
In the early preliminaries, Stannard placed 16th in qualifying for the 200 IM in 2:38.64, missing a spot in the finals. She then placed 14th among 71 entrants in the girls 12-under 50M freestyle, in 29.27.
Brager, 13, saw his first meet action when he placed 36th overall in the boys 14-under open 400M freestyle in 4:38.54.
On Saturday, Stannard narrowly missed another finals berth, qualifying ninth in the 200M freestyle in 2:18.23. That placed her three-hundredths of a second behind the eighth and final qualifier, and earned her alternate finalist status.
Confortin and Brager each raced in the open 800M freestyle. Confortin placed 18th in the boys 16-under class in 9:11.82. Brager was 19th in the boys 14-under class in 9:34.11.
Romkes wrapped up the meet by placing 14th in the 100M butterfly, in 1:06.95.
— NEWS Staff