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Otters Win Inaugural Points North Cup

Bring Home the Hardware

Eight members of the Otters braved floods and mudslides to travel to the Wrap-up Meet in Prince Rupert. Five of them brought home aggregate medals.

Winning gold were Brian Dohler in 12 and under boys, Karoline Specht in 15 and over girls, and Damon Hines in 15 and over boys. Nicole Quant won silver in 14 and under girls and Jessica Becker won Bronze in 12 and under girls.

Otters were awarded the Points North Cup for the first Regional Championship and a large banner will hang in our pool to commemorate this win.

Otters won both regional Swimmer of the Year awards with Carlene Creyke winning the girl's award and Damon Hines sharing the boy's award with Patrick Duff of Kitimat.

Damon set three new club records in 400m free, 200m IM and 1500m free.

Otters Win Home Meet

Damon Qualifies for Nationals in Montreal

Forty seven members of the Otters competed as the club hosted the Alcan NW Regional Championships. Six Otters won aggregate medals; Damon Hines, Carlene Creyke, Karoline Specht and Brett Zollen each won gold medals in their age groups, and Nicole Quant and Jared Lester won silver in their groups. 34 pool records were broken at the meet, 21 of these by Otters.   Damon Hines swam the 200m butterfly in 2:18.35, qualifying for the Age Group Nationals in Montreal in July. The team scored 77% personal best times. 

 

Brett and Carlene Win Gold in PG

Brett Zollen won the gold medal in the 11-12 boys group and Carlene Creyke won gold in the 15 and over girls. 13 Otters joined swimmers from Kitimat, Terrace and prince Rupert to compete as Points North in the long course Moose Meet.

Otters Race in Prince Rupert

Twenty four Otters travelled to Prince Rupert and had another exceptional performance. The team had 76% best times with eight swimmers achieving 100% personal bests.  These were Zoe Bizarro, Amy and Matthew Fowler, Adam and Nathan Hartnett, Ethan McLellan, Scott Venter and Carmen Wojdak.  Seven Otters won points aggregate medals: Bailey Espersen, bronze in 10 and under boys, Nicole Quant, silver and Jessica Becker, gold in 12 and under girls, Brian Dohler, silver in 12 and under girls, Karo Specht, gold in 15 and over girls, and Dustin Rosner, bronze and Damon Hines, silver in 15 and over boys.

Brian Dohler set a new club record in the 12 and under boys 800m free, taking 34 seconds of his previous best time, and Damon Hines also set a club record in the 15 and over boys 400m free, taking 33 seconds off his previous best.  The Otters came in second in total points for the meet, and continue to lead the race for the zone championship for the year.

 Otters at AAA's in Victoria

Five members of the Otters qualified for BC AAA Short Course Champs in Victoria.  Each of those attending broke at least one club record for a total of ten new records.  Jessica Becker set a new record in the 200m fly, Jared Lester in the 100m breast, and Brett Zollen set four in the 50m, 100m and 200m free, and the 100m back.  These were all 12 and under records.  Carlene Creyke set new 15 and over records in the 100m and 200m fly, and Damon Hines set new records in the 15 and over boys 200m fly and 400m IM.

Brett won the bronze medal in the 100m free and Jared came fourth, only .2 off the gold in the 100m breast. Jessica took 33 seconds off her time for 200m fly to set a new club record.  Carlene swam to Western National qualifying times in the 100m breast and fly.  Damon took 14 sec. off his previous club record in the 400m IM.

The swimmers had 80% best times led by Brett and Carlene with 100%. 

Excellent Results in Terrace

25 Otters attended the NW Champs meet in Terrace and broke 9 club records and brought home 6 medals.  Brett Zollen and Damon Hines each broke three club records, Carlene Creyke broke two, while Nicole Quant and Jared Lester each broke one.

Aggregate medals were won by Nicole Quant, bronze in 12 and under girls, Jared Lester, bronze, and Brett Zollen, silver in 12 and under boys, Karo Specht, bronze and Carlene Creyke, gold in 15 and over girls, and Damon Hines, gold in 15 and over boys.

The Otters team came a close second in the meet, losing to Kitimat by only a few points.

The team had 79% best times, with Bailey Espersen, Christina Saimoto, Brett Zollen, Emily Boot and Damon Hines achieving 100% personal best times. 

Otters Win Home Meet 

Fifty Otters came out for our home meet on Dec 2-3.  The meet was fully sponsored by Newpro (Northern Engineered Wood Products), our local panel board plant.  Unfortunately an avalanche closed the highway, so that Prince Rupert were unable to come, but those who made it had a great meet.  Otters won nearly all available aggregate medals, as Nicole Quant, Brett Zollen, Karo Specht, and Damon Hines won gold in their respective age groups.  Jared Lester, Lacey Creyke, Carlene Creyke and Dustin Rosner won silver medals, and Jessica Becker, Brian Dohler, Emily Boot, Sam Van Horn and Doug Furlong won bronze.

Points North wins PG Meet

    Twenty-one members of the Otters joined forces with other swimmers from Terrace, Kitimat and Prince Rupert to win the Medical Sprint Meet in Prince George.  Otters swam 70% best times and had a very successful meet.  Brett Zollen won the silver aggregate medal for the 12 and under boys group.

 

Otters Rule the Pool

     The week-end of Nov. 4-5 twenty five Otters went to Terrace for the Olympic visitation camp and meet.  Mark Hahto and Kelly Stefanyshyn put on the camp and the mornings were the meet.   

     The Otters had an awesome dominating performance as we won the meet and also took home seven individual aggregate medals.  Winning medals were Jessica Becker and Karo Specht with golds, Damon Hines, Nicole Quant and Brett Zollen won silvers and Carlene Creyke and Jared Lester won bronze medals.  Overall the Otters scored 82% personal best times.  Eleven Otters had 100% best times.  They were Carlene Creyke, Doug Furlong, Hillary Harness, Damon Hines, Jared and Nathan Lester, Nicole Quant, Christina and Jeremy Saimoto, Karo Specht and Brett Zollen.  Madison Lundberg had 100% first place finishes in the 10 and under girls group.  

     This terrific achievement is a credit to our new head coach, Will Wang, whose enthusiasm and insistence on hard work is showing results in the swimmers.

Otters Hire a New Head Coach

The Otters are happy to announce the hiring of a new head coach who will be starting work in Smithers in September.  Will Wang was born in Beijing China, where he was a successful swimmer from age 5 to 17.  He then began coaching in China before moving to California where he coached swimming and water polo.  For the last two years he was coaching again in China and will now be our head coach. We look forward to the start of the new swim season with our new coach.

 

Carlene Hauls Medals from NAIG

Carlene Creyke went to the North American Indigenous Games in Denver Colorado and came home with a medal from every race.  She won a total seven Gold medals and two Silver medals. Carlene is a member of the BC Indigenous Swim Team, and also represented the Tahltan Nation at the games.

 

Last updated: July 01, 2007.