The Humboldt Hammerheads wrapped up their 2016 swimming season with an awards banquet on Sept. 11.
The Hammerheads enjoyed a highly successful season, which included a second overall finish as a team at the provincial championship, brought home two aggregate points gold medals, 41 individual medals from 17 swimmers, and a number of medals courtesy of various relay teams.
Among the top swimmers for the Hammerheads was Maya Berscheid (15-17 girls division) who claimed one of the two aggregate points gold medals and was also awarded the Hi Point Female Award for an incredible sixth straight year.
Berscheid was joined on the top step of the aggregate points race by teammate Michael Carnago in the 15-17 boys competition who was also awarded the Hi Point Male Award.
The Hi Point Award is awarded to the male and the female who generate the most number of points combined at all of their meets throughout the year.
The team has been getting stronger over the last number of years and as a result the swimmers are generating a larger number of points during the season, says Hammerheads Head Coach, Leisl Lefebvre, through a press release.
“This is showing in our meet standings every weekend. We are a force to be beat. This is also showing in our year end awards, as the race for Hi Point is getting closer each year.”
Abbey McLarty captured the Top Novice Award, which is awarded to the first year competitive swimmer who claims the most points throughout the season, with this year’s award being decided by just two points.
“Which points to a strong future for our club,” says Lefebvre.
Improvement is a large part of swimming, says Lefebvre and the Hammerheads award three awards for most improved swimmer in the Male and Female under 12 category and in the senior category.
The most improved awards are awarded to swimmers who make great improvements in their time in at least three events from last year.
Improvements can be made due to a large number of factors, says Lefebvre, including an improvement in endurance and coordination as well as gaining a greater understanding for the stroke technique.
A number of under 12 females enjoyed large improvements in their time this season including Shae Fraser and Zoe Pleml who knocked off 16.51 and 17.56 seconds respectively to earn honourable mention honours.
The under female 12 Most Improved Award went to Aidra Angelstad who knocked an average of 18.77 seconds off her times from last season.
Darren Romanuik enjoyed an honourable mention for his work at improving in the under 12 male category as he knocked 5.87 second off of his times, but was edged out by teammate Dallin Fraser who claimed the under 12 male Most
Improved Award after knocking an average of 6.18 seconds off his times.
The 13 and over award tends to see swimmers enjoy smaller improvements in their times because they have many of the techniques down and are working on minor improvements to specific parts of their races, says Lefebvre.
“But, sometimes they surprise us.”
A number of swimmers actually did make tremendous improvements to their times this season including Lauren Hinz and Jay Eichorst who improved by 10.25 and 11.25 seconds respectively to earn honourable mentions.
The biggest improvement came from Garrett Brown, who claimed the 13 and over Most Improved Award thanks to an improvement of 13.38 seconds.
“Swimming is the never ending search for perfection and efficiency, and improving personal best times is a great way to track the milestones,” said Lefebvre who noted that improvement is a greater focus for the team than where they finish.
Improvement can come from a variety of ways, but before you improve you must first learn the basics. As a result, the Hammerheads award the Guppy Award to the swimmer who is not competing yet but has begun learning the beginning of movements in the water and the basics of the strokes including the basics of floating and breathing in the water to potentially learning the sign of a distinctive stroke all within one season.
This year’s Guppy Award was presented to Rebecca Gabriel.
Being positive can be a tough part of the sport, especially if swimmers are struggling to knock those precious seconds off of their times, but it is also an important part of the sport.
As a result the Hammerheads hand out the Congeniality Award to swimmer who has a good rapport with everyone including coaches, fellow swimmers and parents and also brings a positive attitude to make practices and meets more enjoyable.
This year the Hammerheads awarded the Congeniality Award to 11-12 girls swimmer Abbie Cannon.
Positivity is an important part of swimming but so is dedication because without dedication knocking seconds off of swimmers’ times is hard to do.
Lauryn MacLean was awarded as the 2016 winner of the Most Dedicated Swimmer Award, which is presented to the swimmer who comes to as many practices as possible, works hard to improve and shows a little bit of self-motivation to keep going.
The Hammerheads also handed out coach’s awards to swimmers who may not have won other awards during the night but embody the characteristics that the Hammerheads encourage all of their swimmers to have.
“They listen to their coaches when correcting their strokes, and giving them funny drills to do. They encourage other swimmers, and try their hardest in every situation. The face their difficulties, and do their best to move ahead,” says Lefebvre.
This year four swimmers were awarded with a Coach’s Award as Ella Schlachter, Tessa Cannon, Chase Hall and Jordan Neinaber all took home the award.
Family is also an important part of the swimming season because they can provide both support for the swimmers and support for the club.
The Family Award is awarded to the family that not only has swimmers competing in the club but also dedicates more time to the club as well.
“The swimmers in this family are dedicated and listen to their coaches, they enjoy meets and are fun to be around. The parents volunteer at almost every swim meet in some capacity, and support the whole team at meets,” says Lefebvre.
The Hinz family is the 2016 recipients of the award.
Michael Carnago claimed the final award of the evening and was the first recipient of the award since 2012 after setting a new provincial record in the 100m backstroke, beating the previous record set in 2006 by .19 seconds.
Lefebvre says the coaches struggled this year, like they do every other year trying to decide who should receive all of the awards.
“Not because we have trouble finding someone worthy of them, but because we have so many worthy candidates each year.”
