The Haney Neptunes Aquatic Club has a lot to celebrate – a team regional championship, a new provincial record, numerous medals from the provincials, and its upcoming diamond anniversary.
The Neptune swimmers, water polo players and synchronized swimmers were at the BCSSA Provincial Championships in Kamloops, Aug. 14-20, and won gold medals and set a provincial records.
The Neptunes swimmers achieved at the highest levels.
In Division 4 (age 12-13) boys, Joel Blanco set a new provincial record for 50-metre freestyle in winning the gold medal for that event, and took two more gold medals for the 50m fly and 100m free, for three in total.
Leighton Ross won two silver medals in Division 1 (age eight and under) girls – one for 100 individual medley and one for 50m fly.
Brevin Wood won a silver medal for 50m backstroke in the Division 1 boys class.
Joshua Smith won two bronze medals for the Division 2 (age 9-10) boys 50m fly and 100m free.
The Neptunes Division 1 girls won gold for the medley relay, while the Division 1 boys won silver for the medley relay. The Division 2 boys and the Division 3 (age 10-12) girls both brought home the bronze medals for their medley relays.
For the freestyle relay teams, the Neptunes Division 1 girls relay team won gold, while the boys Division 1 relay team took silver. The boys Division 2 relay team won a bronze medal and the Division 4 boys relay team took silver.
The championship meet started with a water polo tournament, where the Neptunes mixed U12 team captured the bronze medal while the U14 team won silver.
The synchronized swimming intermediate duet team had a impressive showing, with Madison Seneviratne and Kendra Anderson winning the gold medal, and the intermediate team (Isabella Federation, Seneviratne and Anderson) winning gold for their routine event.
In intermediate figures, Anderson won gold and Seneviratne won silver.
“The Haney Neptunes Aquatic Club are very proud of all of their athletes who work so hard to achieve these amazing accomplishments,” said Heather Anderson, spokesperson for the club.
As a team, the Neptunes placed 11th out of 52 clubs at the provincials, with 1,031 points. That’s about 300 more than the team scored last year.
The team was also regional champions, winning a Fraser Valley region that includes Maple Ridge, Mission, Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Agassiz and Hope.