Swimming World Says Goodbye to Coach Chris Givens

On December 23rd my friend and mentor, Chris Givens was admitted to a Portland area hospital where they discovered a tear in the tissue surrounding his aorta. He died the next day of an Aortic Aneurism.

Coach Chris, as we all called him, was one the finest people I ever met. He taught me a tremendous amount about coaching and life. He had a degree in child psychology so I was able to learn a tremendous amount about kids as people and relate that to my coaching.

Coach Chris coached a tremendous number of excellent swimmers over the course of his career but the one thing he will be remembered for by them all was that he cared deeply for all of them.

Coach Chris Givens will be missed terribly by all who knew him. My thoughts go out to his wife Celeste and his daughters Belle and Kiana.

Day Three Finals

The last night of swimming was very exciting. It started off with a very spirited swim from Alec Page in the 400 free, slicing another three seconds from his time with a 4:54.7 for a commanding win in the event. After the 400 free, it was the breaststrokers turn and, after an average swim of 2:51.4 in the prelims in the 200 breaststroke, Kirsten Rowbotham turned it on in finals with a 2:47.0 and her second Western National Qualifying time of the season. Alec Page and Carter Gorjeu followed that with best times in the final of the 12 and under boys 200 Breast, finishing 4th and 6th respectively. Brock Hoyt followed that up with a third place finish in the boys 200 Breast, equalling his excellent swim in the morning. Finally, the 100 Backstrokes and Andrea Gilberts very strong 1:09.9 for her best time this season and a 4th place finish in the final. Our last swims of the night were Alec and Carter again and they ended up in 3rd and 6th place in the final. Gorjeu broke club records in every event he swam Sunday and Kirsten Rowbotham and Jocelyn Cormier both chipped in with one each in the 200 Breaststroke.

Day Three Preliminaries

Day Three saw some very exciting events for the Killer Whales. It started with Alec Page swimming the 400 free under 5:00 for the first time with a 4:57. Then Brock Hoyt finally made his first ever Western National Qualifying Time with a 2:30.3 in the 200 Breast, beating the standard by over 2 seconds. Then Taylor Padington made her first ever AAA time for 12 and Under Girls with an 11:11.2 clocking in the girls 800 Freestyle. Finals go tonight with Alec Page looking to win his second event of the weekend in the 4oo, Kirsten Rowbotham will try to add another Western Canadian Qualifying time in the 200 Breast. Carter Gorjeu and Alec Page will do battle with each other in the 200 Breast and 100 Back while Andrea Gilbert looks to improve her ranking in the girls 100 Backstroke.

Day Two Finals - Day Three Preliminaries

Day Two finals were very good once again for the Killer Whales. Andrea Gilbert started the night with a 200 backstroke swim off. She lost but was able to swim a time of 2:29.7 for her first time under 2:30 and a new club record in the event. Alec Page was a winner in the 12 and under boys 100 fly with a time of 1:12.3 and improved his time in the 100 breast with a 1:28.0 clocking for fourth place. Carter Gorjeu was in both of those finals as well, improving his time in the 100 fly from the preliminaries. Kirsten Rowbotham wasn't able to better her time from the morning but was good enough for fourth with a 1:19.1. Amberle Bakker was 8th in 1:22.9 in the same final. Brock Hoyt was 1:10.5 in the 100 breaststroke for an best time but was four tenths slower than the Western Canadian Standard. He will go for it on Sunday.

Arrival Time for Team Travel

Swimmers will be arriving in Campbell River between 9:30 and 10:30 pm. Swimmers will be dropped off at their homes between these times.

Day 2 Preliminaries

Day two was a very good day for us at the Christmas Cracker. Morgan Healy swam in the very first heat of 400 IM and posted a 6:10.9 to qualify in 6th place for tonights final. Kirsten Rowbotham swam her 100 breaststroke in 1:18.41, narrowly eclipsing the Western Canadian Championships standard of 1:18.43 and qualifies to swim at the Western National Swimming Championships in Winnipeg this February. Carter Gorjeu, 10, also qualified to swim the 100 breast final and made his very first AAA time for 11-12 boys in the event. Later that day he clocked a time of 22:07 in his first 1500 freestyle, qualifying in that event as well. Joining Gorjeu in the final is Alec Page. Page and Gorjeu will also team up in the boys 100 fly where Gorjeu is entered into the final in first place. Brock Hoyt is also in the final of the boys 15 and over 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:10.9. He needs to swim the event under 1:10.1 to make his very first Western Canadian Championship Qualifying time in the finals tonight.

Day 1 Finals - Christmas Cracker

What a great night! To start things off, Carter Gorjeu, who was alternate in both the 200 free and 200 IM, got a chance to swim both because of a late scratch of a sick swimmer. Carter was able to place 7th in the 200 free and 8th in the 200 IM, swimming the IM in 2:58 for his first time under 3:00 and the swim of the night, voted on by his fellow teammates.

Alec Page was our other finalist last night and placed 2nd in the 200 IM with a time of 2:39, his first time under 2:40. Another excellent swim.

Last night Kirsten Rowbotham broke her very first 13 - 14 girls club record with a clocking of 36.43 in the girls 50 breaststroke. Jared Calder broke 26 in the 50 free for the first time with a time of 25.79 and Brock Hoyt had a very strong swim in the 5o breaststroke with a 33.03 clocking.

Other great swims last night included Marisa Gorjeu's 50 breaststroke (40.2) and two more club records for Carter Gorjeu, pushing his total for the weekend to 6. More results to follow.

Day 1 Preliminaries

The first morning of swimming saw some strong swims from a number of Killer Whales. Aside from the number of amazing time improvements, Alec Page managed to qualify in second spot going into tonight's finals in the boys 200 I'm while two 10 and Under club records wasn't enough to qualify Carter Gorjeu in the 12 and Under 200 Free and IM finals as he finished 9th in both.

Jocelyn Cormier joined Gorjeu as CRKW's 10 and Under AAA qualifiers making the standard with a 3:08 in the 200 IM. Kirsten Rowbotham made another AAA time with a 2:36 clocking in the 200 IM.