Small in numbers, huge in heart Neptunes keep medals coming in Kimberley
By The Nelson Daily Sports
The Nelson Neptunes may be small in numbers, but the club is huge on heart.
The Neptunes took a, dwarfed by recent standards, team to the East Kootenay to compete in the Kimberley meet — the final regular season stop on the Kootenay Summer Swim Association campaign.
Still Nelson won three aggregate medals, two my stalwarts Sage Cowan and Samuel Matthew.
Cowan finished second in Division four girls while Matthew also earned the runner-up prize in Division four boys.
“Kimberley was a really small meet for us,” Neptune coach Rebecca Afford commented.
“We only had 14 swimmers in attendance and five of them were novices who swim exhibition meaning they do not score the team any points.”
“Despite this, Logan Wright was able to earn some meet records in the 25m butterfly, 25m freestyle and 25m backstroke,” Afford added.
Trail Stingrays continue to be the team to beat on the Kootenay circuit, finishing on top of the standings with 1317.5 points.
Rival Castlegar Aquanauts took second followed in third by host Kimberley.
Golden, Grand Forks, Creston and Nelson finished respectively through seventh position.
Cranbrook and Colville were eighth and ninth.
Afford continues to be impressed with the competitive fight from Cowan and Matthew.
“The division swimmers that did come did a tremendous job and many of them put up some great times that I know they will be able to improve at the coming meet,” explained Afford, who also grabbed a bronze medal in Division seven girls.
The Neptunes travel to Colville, Wash., this weekend for the Kootenay Regional Championships.
The top swimmers qualify for the Provincial meet later this month in Nanaimo.
