By Angie Abdou
The Elk Valley Dolphins Swim Club continues to grow and improve in both numbers and results. What used to dub itself as “the best little swim club in BC” now boasts a membership of 260 — no longer “little” by anyone’s standards.
Through the fall and early winter season, the swimmers attended five out-of-town meets culminating with the elite J.P. Fiset competition in Edmonton.
“That’s fewer than usual travel meets for us,” explained Head Coach Aidan Chudleigh. “With inflation, we wanted to give families a financial break and incorporate monthly home race nights in place of extensive travel.”
The goal, in addition to savings for parents, was also to give new swimmers easier exposure racing opportunities and to allow the club’s more elite athletes extra training time between out-of-town competitions.
The strategy worked. Through the early season, the Dolphins earned over 155 podium places and 11 club records. In February, the Dolphins will have a record of over 20 swimmers representing the Elk Valley at the Montana State Championships. The Dolphins also had up to 100 swimmers competing on the local race nights.
For the 12-and-under age group, all this activity culminated with the Provincial Championships meet of Alberta Festivals in Edmonton, January 24-26. The competition has notoriously tough qualifying standards. Layla Rella and Lazlo Gyorki represented the Dolphins admirably.
Lazlo Gyorki swam the 400 free, 50 free, 50 breast, 100 IM, 50 back, 100 free, and 200 IM. He achieved personal best times in all seven events, taking off an impressive 17 seconds in the 400 free to make the top 16.
In the girls’ category, Layla Rella made finals for all her events and earned seven for seven medals. In a first for the Elk Valley Dolphins, she brought home silver for the 50 free, 100 IM, 50 back, 50 fly, and 100 free, as well as bronze in the 400 free and 100 fly.
“We’re very proud of our athletes,” said Coach Aidan Chudleigh, “not just for their results but also for the way they maintained their composure and performed well in a potentially high-pressure situation.”
The same weekend, the Dolphins had 18 swimmers attend a one-day meet in Kalispell, Montana.
Now the Dolphins hit an intense training phase to gear up for the Montana State Championships. “We’re in a challenging spot geographically,” explained Coach Chudleigh. “For us to compete in the BC division would mean a lot of long trips to the coast. For now, we’ve created a good season plan that builds to peak meets in Alberta and Montana.”
Dolphins’ coaches are excited to see how their swimmers’ hard work pays off and how fast they can go at the US championship meet on February 20-23 in Butte, Montana.