Garabaldi’s Haoxuan Wang put the province on notice when the Grade 11 student set a new Fraser Valley championship record in the boys’ 100-metre individual medley final on Oct. 22 in Surrey.
Wang broke his own Fraser Valley record by almost two seconds, finishing in a time of 1:04.23.
All Top 10 finishes at the Fraser Valleys automatically earn a spot at the provincial championships, set for Nov. 13 and 14 in Kamloops.
Wang won three events last year at the Valleys, but had to pull out of the provincials due to injury.
Wang also won the valley 50m backstroke in a time of 30.13 and the 100m freestyle in a time of 59.74, and came second in the 50m freestyle in 26.41.
Garabaldi head coach Antony Cowie said he was impressed with how his team competed at the event. He said the team of eight swimmers managed to finish 14th overall out of 40 schools.
Also helping lead Garabaldi was Katarina Preocanin, who finished second in the girls’ 50m backstroke with a time of 34.68 and second in the 100m freestyle, with a 1:07:17. The Grade 10 student also finished third in the 100m medley with a 1:15:25.
Teammate Yuri Cowie finished seventh in the 50m backstroke in a time of 37:47.
Garabaldi’s Grade 8 swimmer Humphrey Corrales finished seventh in the boy’s 100m backstroke with a time of 1:12:15 and eighth in the 100m butterfly in 1:12:29 and ninth in the 100m freestyle with a 1:10:02.
Maple Ridge secondary’s Julia Rosec qualified for the provincials finishing eighth in the 50m freestyle in a time of 31:20 and seventh in the 200m IM with a time of 2:53:07.
Teammate Dale Longmuir, a Grade 8 competitor, finished sixth in the 50m breaststroke with a time of 37:73.
The team of Sydney Foster, Tesia Kelleway, Sophia Scarcella, and Grace McIntyre finished ninth in the 200m freestyle relay with a time of 2:38:82
Paras swimmer Emma Doucette also qualified for the provincials in the 50m freestyle and 50m breaststroke.
MRSS coach Meg McCormick said the team had a number of members graduate last fall, so she was excited with seeing seven athletes qualify for the provincials.
“We have a really young team, an number of Grade 8s, so I think our showing was really impressive,” said McCormick.
MRSS finished 26th overall in team standings.