INNISFAIL – The Innisfail Dolphins made history this weekend by earning their first regional trophy since the organization began 70 years ago.
The Dolphins had 73 out of a record number 93 registered swimmers this season compete in the 2019 Alberta Summer Swim (Region D) Regionals.
They took top spot overall, winning the regional trophy for the first time in the club's history with a total of 1186.5 points.
The event took place at the Innisfail Aquatic Centre from Aug. 9 to 11.
“The regionals is a great opportunity for the town,” said Kendra Haldorson, president of the Dolphins. “It’s really great for Innisfail to host such a huge event.”
A total of 270 swimmers from 10 clubs across Central Alberta competed in regionals, noted Haldorson, including those from Lacombe, Olds, Hanna, Ponoka, Innisfail and Red Deer.
The three-day event began Friday evening with a timed 1,500-metre final (freestyle) event followed by events in several categories on Saturday and Sunday.
Some of those events included the 200-metre and 400-metre freestyle, short butterfly, long butterfly, short individual medley, long backstroke, short breaststroke and medley relay.
“We have preliminaries this morning and (Sunday) morning and finals are in the afternoon (on both days),” said Haldorson. “So far Innisfail is doing very well.
“It’s been a lot of work to get this event to come together and it’s a huge deal for these swimmers to be in the regionals and provincial championships (next week),” she said. “These swimmers train hard from May 1 until this event. This allows them to see how all their hard work has paid off.”
Many of the 73 Dolphins competing in regionals contributed to the team's success this weekend, said head coach Josh Gette.
“I think it’s really good. This is a nice time for the town to come to the meet and see that they really are awesome swimmers,” said Gette. “It is the biggest number of swimmers (we’ve had from Innsifail) at regionals by quite a bit.”
Gette said it’s been a rewarding season for the Dolphins.
“We’ve been consistently winning some meets and staying really high ranked in the province,” he added, noting the club’s fourth-place provincial ranking.
The top two swimmers in each final (swim event) will move on to provincials that will be held next weekend in Edmonton on Aug. 17 and 18.
“We’ve had quite a few swimmers in provincials before and we’ve always done really well there, so we’re hoping to do the same thing again this year,” Gette concluded.
