WATERLOO REGION (December 12, 2014) – The Resurrection Phoenix recaptured the overall combined swimming title at the District 8 championship held Wednesday night at Wilmot Recreation Centre.
As a team, Resurrection was held off the top of the podium for the last two years, which was preceded by a five year reign.
Resurrection’s top performer on Wednesday night was Kurtis Gray who tallied 30 points, and won the senior boys high school division. Gray also captured four first place finishes and posted three OFSAA qualifying times. A close second in the senior boys division was Brian Rickert of St. Mary’s who scored 27 points, and in third was Gray’s teammate Gabriel Baranoski with 20.
Gray’s 30 points were just a fraction of the 252 total points that the Resurrection boys team earned on their way to the boys overall D8 Championship. St. Benedict C.S.S scored 171 points and narrowly edged past St. Mary’s who scored 166 in the overall boys division. Monsignor Doyle took fourth with a 90 point effort, while the St. David’s boys scored 59.
The girls division was a much tighter race atop the leaderboard as St. Mary’s squeezed passed Resurrection with 239 and 238 points respectively. St. Benedicts was a very close third with 231. St. David Celtics girls team secured 222 points while Doyle had 150.
Top female swimmer for the day was St. David’s open class swimmer Madison Edgar who contributed 30 points for her team including four first place finishes and posting two CWOSSAA qualifying times. She was closely followed in her division by Monsignor Doyle’s Angela Marina with 28 points and St. David’s Kate Fitzpatrick with 25 points.
In the boys open division, Ethan Locis scored 30 points taking gold in the 200m freestyle, 100m fly and 100m backstroke posting OFSAA qualifying times for all three events. Resurrection’s Marcel Heather scored 27 points to finish second, while Celtic Lukas Wormald scored 26 points finishing third.
St. Mary’s Eagles Allison Frezell and Gillian Frezell finished at the top of the senior girls high school division with 28 and 24 points respectively. Both girls posted qualifying times for CWOSSAA. Andie Robertson (Monsignor Doyle), Lauren Blair (St. David’s) and Emilee Starr (Resurrection) tied for third with 18 points each.
Brandon Starr won both the 50m and 100m breaststroke events on his way to finishing first in the junior boys high school division. Starr’s teammate Dylan Robbescheuten finished second with 24 points while Nick Scarfone of St. David’s finished third with 23 points.
In the deepest division, Sarah Helsby topped the leaderboard with 24 points as she contributed to a gold medal finish in the junior girls 200m medley relay. Helsby also finished second in three other events; 100m individual medley, 50m fly and 50m breaststroke. Nicole Stoyakovich of St. Mary’s and Elizabeth VanDam of St. David’s finished in a tie for second place with 22 points each.