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Returning Stingray sweeps field at home meet

A returnee made his mark in his old stomping grounds.

A returnee made his mark in his old stomping grounds.

Following a two-year hiatus from the sport Thomias Bruch showcased what he can still do in the pool, blitzing the field for four individual gold medals at the Okotoks Stingrays annual home meet, June 9-10 at the Riley Minue.

“I took two years off winter club and just decided I want to do this again, I always really enjoyed the sport,” said Bruch, 18.

The Okotokian touched the wall first in the 50m butterfly, 200m freestyle, 100m breaststroke and 200m individual medley.

Despite sweeping the field, the talented swimmer insists there are a few hurdles to overcome in the pool.

“It’s mentally getting past the block of trying to race,” Bruch said. “There is a huge mental block for me about not pushing myself as hard as I can in a race. I need to get back in that groove and push myself better in races so I’m getting out of the water struggling for breath.”

The Stingrays, celebrating their 36 year anniversary season, once again punched above its weight class against bigger teams during the two day competition.

Team points are awarded for all top 10 finishes.

“Because this our meet we host every year this is definitely the one we look forward to,” said Stingrays co-head coach Tammy Andersen. “For us, we really work on our 100 IM which is one of our harder events and all of our kids did extremely well.”

The second meet on the Alberta Summer Swimming Association schedule is second only to the regionals in terms of importance for the club.

“It’s in our home pool which gives us the advantage,” Andersen said. “Any time we can swim in our home pool we are looking for top times.

“Okotoks is a small club compared to places like Calgary Tritons that have something like 160 swimmers, we only have about 80. We usually come between third or fourth in the points and compared to the really big clubs we do extremely well.”

Outside of the pool an army of volunteers work countless hours to plan and produce the two-day event.

“It takes a couple months preparation,” said meet manager Shelley Broadley. “My position does the logistics for it, so making sure we have all of our disciplines covered so all of the officials, the meals, the prep.”

Approximately 200 volunteers played a hand in putting on the event on day two.

“The majority of our parents help volunteer whether in an official position with certification or they’re doing something else to help out,” Broadley said. “We also rely on a lot of help from the outside teams as well because we don’t physically have the kind of numbers to support that.”

Once the competition goes off without a hitch, the young athletes aren’t the only ones celebrating on the pool deck.

“It’s fantastic, you probably missed us cheering,” Broadley said. “We came out half an hour ahead of schedule. One of the things our computer allows us to do with the timing of the meet with the swimmers’ times is it will actually give you an approximate running time.

“We were more than on schedule.”

Next up for Okotoks is the High River Otters swim meet.

For more information on the Stingrays go to okotoksstingrays.com


Remy Greer

About the Author: Remy Greer

Remy Greer is the assistant editor and sports reporter for westernwheel.ca and the Western Wheel newspaper. For story tips contact [email protected]
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