Kick -off IAS’s 2020 Competitive Season

Many BSSC athletes took part in their first meet of the decade from January 16-19, 2020 at the Lisa Alexander Tech and Routine Meet in Etobicoke, Ontario. At the end of the four days, BSSC athletes had several incredible performances and qualified the Purple 13-15 Team and the Athletes with Unique Abilities (AUA) for the Ontario Winter Games (OWG).

“We had swimmers who were prepared, ready and focused on their task at hand,” said Head Coach Elly Van Fleet. “There were several wonderful first performances in figures and routines that resulted in great feedback from the judges.”

Several of BSSC’s AUA athletes were new to competitive synchro had an incredible debut. The team swam as duets in order to qualify for OWG — currently, there is no team event for AUA athletes at OWG. Gold medals were secured by Lacey Leest and Allison Shuker in the C1 Duet Final, Holly and Jade Garner in the C2 Duet Final, Parrish Mayers-Cochrane in the C2 Solo Final, and Jessica and Melanie Robillard in the Mixed-Ability Duet Final. Timofey Zaitsev and Melanie Robillard also picked up silver medals in the C1 and C3 Solo Finals respectively.

The combo team finished third with a score of 57.900. Elizabeth Pare, Aleesa Zaitseva and Sophie Slowikowski finished in the top 25% of athletes in the 11-12 figure event, as did Jessie Yu, Faith Bennett, Nicole Carver and Evelyn Goddard who finished 24th, 35th, 42nd and 44th out of 234 athletes in the 13-15 figures.

“Coaches are now focused on keeping the momentum going, holding the expectations of the athletes at the level we saw over the week, and pushing them to new goals,” Van Fleet said of the club’s next steps. 

The OWG will take place in Orillia, Ontario from February 27 – March 1, 2020 for the Purple Team and AUA athletes. The entire club will compete at the Waterloo Invitational on February 23, 2020.

For full results, please visit Ontario Artistic Swimming’s website.