UCSC Swimmers Break Provincial Records at the Dino Invitational

2023 Dino Invitational

• October 27-28, 2023
• University of Calgary Aquatic Centre, Calgary, Alberta
• Short Course Meters (25m)
• Results

A pair of University of Calgary Swim Club (UCSC) 15-year-olds broke Alberta provincial age group records last month at the Dino Invitational in Calgary, a timed-finals meet that included varsity athletes from the University of British Columbia, University of Calgary, and University of Lethbridge. 

On day one of the meet, Laon Kim put himself on the provincial age-group record board for 15-year-old men by stopping the 50-free clock at 22.75. Before aging up and officially joining UCSC, Kim set Canadian age-group SCM records for 13-14 men in the 50/100/200/400/800 free, 200 fly, and 200/400 IM. Now with the provincial record in hand for the 50 free, Kim still has some serious time to drop before he can outswim the 21.45 it took Joshua Liendo to claim the Canadian record for 15-17 men in 2019. 

During the second day of the meet, Kim’s teammate Sienna Rodgers led off the women’s 200 medley relay in 28.19, shaving .08 off her own Alberta provincial age group record for 15-year-old women in the 50 back. She also dropped 1.45 to place 1st in the 100 back with 1:00.60, edging up to the provincial age group record (59.68) set in 2010 by Brooklynn Snodgrass, who went on to become a Commonwealth Games medalist and Big Ten Swimmer of the Year. Rodgers took 2nd to the University of British Columbia’s Rose Garcia in the 50 fly by dropping .41 (28.04), less than a second away from the provincial age group record (27.09) set by UCSC’s Kamryn Cannings in 2021. 

MEET HIGHLIGHTS

Aiden Norman took 1st and broke his own club record for 17-year-old men in the 100 back with a 53.78, slightly faster than his previous record set a week earlier (53.80) at the UCSC Fall Start Up meet. He was close (25.46) to his club record in the 50 back (25.24) also set the previous weekend. He brought in his 200 back at 1:57.89, which was the only sub-2-minute backstroke at the meet but 5 seconds off his personal best. These are promising early-season swims for Norman, the provincial age group record holder for 16-year-olds in the 50, 100, and 200 backstroke. He also placed 1st in the 200 free (1:50.42). 

The UCSC women’s 200 medley relay team of Sienna Rodgers, Jordan Greber, Ranumi Eashwarage, and Katie Graboski edged out the University of Calgary varsity team to take 1st with a time of 1:54.50. 

UCSC also won the men’s 400 free relay. Aiden Norman, Laon Kim, Paul Dardis, and Elijah O’Reilly stopped the clock at 3:20.97 ahead of the University of British Columbia’s 2nd-place finish (3:23.37).

15-year-old Maxine Clark, who holds many provincial and UCSC age group records in free, fly, and IM, took 1st in the 100 fly (1:01.99) and 200 free (2:01.90). She placed 2nd to the University of Calgary’s varsity swimmer Emily De Jager (4:20.16) in the 400 free (4:20.73) and 2nd in the 100 free (57.11) to the University of British Columbia’s Eloise Allen (56.35).