LU swimmers close out season in style

Talk about closing out the swim season in style.

Led by an outstanding eight-medal performance by Thomas Boyd, and with recently recovered Nina Kucheran adding three podium placements of her own, a quintet of Sudbury Laurentian Swim Club representatives returned from Age Group Nationals in Quebec City about as happy as can be.

Beyond the impressive medal haul came a slew of personal best performances, as Abby McDonald showed signs of returning to the form she first displayed at the 2013 Age Group Nationals in Montreal.

Taking advantage of the opportunity to compete at the event for the first time, youngsters Hannah Nordquist and Everett Smith garnered valuable experience, not to mention a ton of local motivation from the results posted by their teammates.

Boyd garnered three gold medals, three silver medals, and a pair of bronze medals, finishing second only to Gabe Matromatteo of Kenora in the age group aggregate point championship.

He was at his best in the freestyle and backstroke, picking up a pair of first place finishes in the former (100m and 200m freestyle) and a gold and two bronze in the latter.

Only a few months removed from taking a tumble on the rock climbing wall at Laurentian University, and badly breaking her foot, an injury that would keep her out of the SDSSAA Track & Field Championships, Kucheran excelled in the breaststroke, earning two silver and a bronze in the "Age 15" bracket.

She also reached the final in both the 200m and 400m individual medleys, just missing the podium in the longer event with a fourth place finish. McDonald advanced to the finals in all three butterfly events, finishing fifth in the 100m race, and posting very encouraging PBs in the process.

And finally, both Nordquist and Smith would also reach a final, one in the breaststroke, the other in the backstroke.

Sliding into a third-place seeding following the morning heats with a time of 1:19.42 in the 100m breaststroke, Nordquist slipped a pair of notches in the final, despite lowering her time to 1:18.99.

Smith, who knew full well he would be in tough in Quebec based on the pre-event rankings, earned a seventh place finish in the 50m backstroke prelims (there were 26 swimmers in all), walking away with an eight place ribbon after registering a time of 30.22 seconds in the final.

Following are timed results for all five swimmers, based on what has been posted online to date:

Abigail McDonald (14)
50m butterfly – 29.64 (9th/48) - 8th in final
100m butterfly – 1:05.77 (10th/36); 1:04.12 (5th/10)
200m butterfly – 2:28.15 (6th/21) – 2:26.53 (7th/10)
100m freestyle – 1:01.72 (17th/32)

Hannah Nordquist (12 and under)
50m breaststroke – 38.37 (14th/19)
100m breaststroke – 1:19.42 (3rd/20) – 1:18.99 (5th/10)
200m breaststroke – 2:58.02 (11th/18)
50m butterfly – 33.15 (23rd/26)

Nina Kucheran (15)
50m breaststroke – 34.55 (6th/30); 33.37 in finals – SILVER
100m breaststroke – 1:15.99 (4th/28) – 1:14.02 – BRONZE
200m breaststroke – 2:41.85 (4th/28) – 2:38.55 - SILVER
400m freestyle – 4:36.46 (12th/32)
800m freestyle – 9:23.57 (8th/25)
1500m freestyle – 17:54.09 (7th/18)
200m IM – 2:26.37 (5th/41) - (4th/10)
400m IM – 5:12.79 (7th/27) – 5:06.11 (6th/10)

Thomas Boyd (13 and under)
50m backstroke – 30.78 (tied for 7th/30) – 30.09 in finals – BRONZE
100m backstroke – 1:04.86 (1st/30) – 1:03.60 - BRONZE
200m backstroke – 2:21.33 (1st/26) – 2:18.29 – GOLD
50m freestyle – 25.90 (3rd/30) – 25.61 - SILVER
100m freestyle – 56.38 (1st/30) – 55.99 – GOLD
200m freestyle – 2:03.91 (1st/26) – 2:02.58 – GOLD
400m freestyle – 4:32.55 (5th/23) - SILVER
100m breaststroke – 1:15.92 (10th/26) – 1:15.32 (10th/10)
200m IM – 2:22.74 (3rd/29) - SILVER

Everett Smith (14)
100m backstroke – 1:06.62 (26th/33)
200m backstroke – 2:24.24 (28th/33)
50m backstroke – 30.37 (7th/26) – 30.22 (8th/10)
100m breaststroke – 1:16.64 (25th/28)