Piranhas win first out of town swim meet

By Shara JJ Cooper

The Grand Forks Piranhas have emerged the winners of the Nelson swim meet last weekend, by accumulating the most points. 

“We are all very excited because the Piranhas won the Nelson Swim Meet this past weekend by scoring the most points,” said coach Samantta Villanueva. Swim club president Laura Lewis believes it is the first out-of-town meet they have won. 

Of the wins, 26 Piranhas swimmers passed their personal bests a whopping 85 times and the relay team continued to make other players “eat their bubbles” by placing first in seven of the 11 relay races.

Libby Evers swam in the Nelson Swim Meet — her first swim meet ever — and did remarkably well, according to Villanueva, helping her relay team place 2nd in their category. 

Isaac Friesen excelled when he took on the Division 1, 100-metre freestyle race for the first time at the meet. He helped the Division 6 relay team place first in their category. 

“I am so proud of all the swimmers who participated in the meet and can't wait for our home meet coming up this weekend on June 11,” said Villanueva. “I hope we started a winning streak to carry through this season.”

See the winners below: 

Div 1 (boys)

Brett Friesen —  2nd

Kazuaki Dunnet —  1st

Div 2 (girls)

Emma Lewis —  2nd

Div 2 (boys)

Michael Konken — 3rd 

Lincoln Faulkner — 2nd

Div 3 (boys)

Kohei Dunnet — 1st

Div 4 (girls)

Jasmine Konken — 3rd

Div 5 (girls)

Kiyomi Dunnet — 1st

Shian Corbeil — 3rd 

Div 6 (girls)

Leena Corbeil tied for 3rd

Div 6 (boys)

Coach Ethan Argue — 1st 

Div 8 (women) 

Coach Samantta Villanueva — 1st

Trail, BC — May 27th to 28th

The previous weekend, the Piranhas had their first meet of the season, which they used as a training ground. Many of the swimmers had never been to a meet before.

“We had an outstanding number of personal best times since competing last year,” said Villanueva of the 27 Piranhas that attended the meet. The racers created 61 personal best times during the meet.

In addition to the personal bests, the Piranhas also broke three of the Trail Swim Meet records. Kiyomi Dunnet set a new Meet Record in the 50-metre Butterfly event, taking off almost a second from the 2004 record with a time of 30.59s. She also shaved milliseconds off of the 2004 meet record for the 50-metre Freestyle event with her time of 28.86s. Shian Corbeil beat a 22-year-old record in the 100-metre Butterfly event with a time of 1:11.96.

As a team, the swimmers gathered medals in most of the age categories. 

Division 1 

Brett Friesen — gold

Kazuaki Dunnet tied for a silver medal

Division 2 (girls)

Emma Lewis — 1st

Division 2 (boys)

Lincoln Faulkner — 2nd

Division 5 

Shian Corbeil tied for 1st place

Kiyomi Dunnet tied for 1st place

Luella Faulkner — 3rd

Division 6

Kevin Argue (coach) — tied in 2nd

Division 8 

Samantta Villanueva — 1st 

The Grand Forks Piranhas placed 3rd as a team in total points.

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The Piranhas are hosting their annual swim meet this coming weekend and welcome the public down to watch the swimmers race, which starts at 9 a.m. on Sunday and will have a silent auction.