You certainly couldn't call them fish out of water, but arguably the pool they were in was unfamiliar territory.

Humboldt's Hammerheads competitive swim team took on a daunting challenge by heading to Moose Jaw for two-day long course meets. The Moose Jaw contingent performed admirably in an event that saw their year-round competitors take notice of the young summer swimmers.

The Humboldt Hammerheads are part of a summer swimming competitive network that goes from May 1 to August 31. The competitors from Moose Jaw and other centres at the two-day competition are year-round swimmers, normally giving them a competitive advantage because of the longer training season.

Adding to the Hammerheads' challenge was the fact that the outdoor pool venue for the contest was a 50-metre pool, twice the length of the pool the Humboldt team trains and competes at in the Uniplex. Leisl Lefebvre, Hammerheads' coach, explains that this reduces the frequency of turns the swimmers are used to. Those turns are used to create thrust in the water when the swimmers kick off the walls. So in the longer pool scenario, the Humboldt swimmers, who are used to more frequent turns and different visual frames of reference, found themselves literally in unfamiliar waters.

Undaunted, the trio of Charlize Parish, Darren Romanuik and Sabrina MacLean performed up to and beyond their expectations. Romanuik characterizes the meet this way, "It was a lot different because this was a winter meet meaning we were going against swimmers that train almost double of what we do in a year." Compounded with the pool length, the challenges were evident.

Assessing his performance, Romanuik said, "I did pretty good; I thought the competition was going to be a lot more stiff, but I worked hard in every race and put it all into every race, and it turned out pretty good."

Romanuik said the team had to step up the strokes to remain competitive. He explained, "As a summer swimmer, we rely on our turns quite heavily as that's where we gain most of our time up. Without the additional turn, it causes a lot more struggle to race back meaning we have to swim faster than we usually do."

His teammates agree that the longer pool presents challenges. Sabrina MacLean explains that the distance from the wall in the larger pool caused a bit of disorientation compared to their usual digs. "During the 100 metres coming back, we weren't used to the pool being that long. With the wall behind you, you couldn't see where it was even though you kept looking for it because we were used to turning at 25 metres."

Even the warmups were different than the Hammerheads had experienced. Parish and MacLean laughed, "One of the most confusing thing in their warmups was that they used flutterboards. And we were really confused. We'd stop and do our turns and we'd occasionally get trampled."

Again in spite of the inherent challenges, the swimmers were pleased with their outcomes. Charlize Parish smiled when she revealed, "I got seconds, thirds, fifths, and a sixth." In a field of twenty plus swimmers, Parish humbly confessed she was proud of her accomplishment. MacLean also fared well placing in the top 40 percent in a field of swimmers that were older than the grade 8 and 9 students. 

While the Romanuik, Parish and MacLean do not swim competitively in the offseason, they do stay active in other sports and utilize cross training to achieve these remarkable results. MacLean does synchronized swimming in the wintertime and Parish is an accomplished volleyball player. When the competitive swim season comes around, these young athletes come prepared for any challenge. 

Five swimmers went to Swift Current to battle the elements while three travelled to Moose Jaw for a 2-day long course meet. Ben Stomp, Taryn Hamilton, Sophia Babagonio, Taylor Possberg and Tia Zimmerman went to Swift Current for a Saturday meet.  The weather wasn't the most favourable for an outdoor swim meet with continuous rain and wind but the Hammerheads made it through the day.  Each swimmer swam a personal best and swam races that they had not competed in before.  Three Hammerheads came home with aggregate medals from the meet.  Ben Stomp brought home a silver medal in the boys 7-8 age group.  Sophia Babagonio and Tia Zimmerman each took the gold in their respective age groups of 11-12 girls and 18 & over girls.

Next on the travel schedule for the Hammerheads is a trip to Regina on June 29.