2012 Team Champs

The spirit of team champs brought the mighty Bluefins together as a hard swimming family. The cheering got contagious throughout the weekend following many personal best times every time the kids swam an event. While this is my first year as head coach, I am proud to say the sea of green ranked 4th in division 2. Personally, with all my years attending swim meets, I would rank this team champs as the most rewarding. From the kids all coming together for meals at the hotel to the results achieved, the whole weekend was filled with kids smiles and happy memories. I’m looking forward to finishing up the year with stronger performances at age group nationals in Calgary at the end of July. - Thomas Kindler, Head Coach

Canadian Olympic Swim Trials 2012

The Bluefins went in great numbers on Wednesday, March 28th to the Canadian Olympic swim trials to cheer Stephanie Horner to the podium in her 400 IM race. Here are some photos from our trip and Stephanie's amazing success!

SPEEDO Eastern National Championship February 2012 was a big meet for the elite kids. All 9 swimmers stepped up to the big stage. By racing hard and all getting personal best times in every event they swam. This is a great sign of things to come later this summer at age groups and senior nationals. We are building a solid foundation for success in the pool for years to come, while staying healthy. Swimmers at easterns: Camille Bergeron Miron, Jenna Thompson, Kira Goin, Caroline LeClaire, Pascale Robins and Bruno Giroux, Kirk Shaw and Brandon Adams.

Aquafete du Carnaval February 2012
The “Aquafete du Carnaval” competition took place this year from February 4 th-5 th and was a huge success on many levels. Every year we highlight this swim meet on the calendar and both the coaches and swimmers look forward to it.
This was one of our best showings at this competition in recent years with a total of 45 Bluefins swimmers making the trip up to compete. Not only did we have a large number of swimmers participate, they also all swam very fast. We placed very high in most events and witnessed the swimmers do personal bests in most if not all of their events.
Although racing only began Saturday morning, the fun really began Friday night at the Carnaval du Quebec. We had a great turnout for some light skating, sliding and ice sculpting and had a blast. We had an even bigger turnout Saturday afternoon for our team lunch at Cage-aux-Sports where we unfortunately watched the Canadiens lose to the Capitals but still had a great time.
All in all, it was a great weekend of swimming and wintertime fun and we are excited to return again next season!

P1 championship February 2012 Congratulations to all the swimmers who participated at the P1 championship February 10th - 12th. Tremendous amounts of personal bests were achieved by the Bluefins swimmers. Special thanks to Camo for hosting a great meet.

November 2011 - BrantFord Finalists, Standards Achievements
Congratulations to all of our Bluefins swimmers who competed at the Brantford Swim International meet, last weekend. It was a great team building experience and one that demonstrated how strong a group we have this year, both in and out of the water. The atmosphere on the pool deck was high energy, with everyone cheering on their teammates. A very special thank you to Isabelle Belanger and Elaine Descoeurs, our top-notch chaperones.

Some Bluefins have also achieved new standards, thanks to their recent performances :

November 2011 - ANLSL Awards
We would like to congratulate all BBF swimmers who received ANLSL Awards for their strong performances, both in and out of the water, during the 2010-11 season.  You will note that a number of these awards are presented to swimmers who have demonstrated a strong work ethic and served as strong role models for their fellow athletes.  These plaques were handed out last week (photos on the website soon).  Congratulations as well to Tim, Bev and Katherine who received recognition of their commitments to BBF and our program.

07-21-2011  The Beaconsfield Bluefins Welcome New Head Coach

The Beaconsfield Bluefins are extremely pleased to welcome Thomas Kindler to the post of Head Coach.  Thomas brings with him a wealth of swimming experience, both as a coach with the McGill University and CNPPO teams plus as an elite athlete, on the Canadian National Swimming Team from 2000-2003, 2005-2006 and 2009.  In his new role he will be both Head Coach, in charge of the Club coaching staff and programs, as well as the coach of the Elite Group.  Thomas replaces Russ Franklin who will depart in August after 10 years at the Bluefins’ helm.  On behalf of the Bluefins family, I would like to thank Russ for his many years of dedication and commitment as the face of Bluefins swimming, and wish him well in his future endeavours.

Simon Robins
President
Beaconsfield Bluefins Swim Club

06-28-2011 P1 Summer Festival

The Bluefins’ P1 swimmers closed out their successful season with a bang. Swimming at the 6 lane pool in St. Jerome the Fins took home 36 medals in total. Leading the way for the Club was Alexander Laroche who won 5 individual medals and Caroline Leclair who brought home 6 medals.
Coach Louis Papineau was proud of the way the team swam, “We did not have as many swimmers competing in this meet as compared to the Winter Festival but the ones who finished their season swam amazing!” Louis added, “My only disappointment was that one of the members of the boys 13-14 200 Free Relay got injured and was not able to swim in the relay. Those guys would have broken the Club Record that was held by swimmers who all made it to the Senior National Level.”
There was a total of 18 different Bluefins who advanced to the Finals swimming a grand total of 62 evening races. 3A coach Etienne Paquet remarked, “The Finals were very exciting to watch because the Team was ready to rock! Swimming faster and moving up in the rankings was the way we rolled!”
At his last meet with the P1 group, Head Coach Russ Franklin said, “You love to see swimmers who work hard and are committed have success in the pool. Being rewarded with a Best Time or a Medal is nice but the best for me is seeing the smiles and realization that all the work was worth it!”

The Finalists and medal winners were :
Alexander Laroche	free- 2nd, 200 free- 2nd, 400 free- 2nd, 50 back- 1st, 100 IM-4 th, 200 IM-2nd
Mitchell Cameron	50 free-6th
Brandon Adams	50 free-1st, 100 free-1st, 100 back-1st, 200 back-4th, 100 fly-1st
Alexandre Grant	50 free-2nd, 200 free-6th, 200 back-1st
Jonathan Wong	50 free-5th, 100 free-3rd
Vincent Cameron	50 free-6th, 100 fly-2nd, 200 IM-3rd, 400 IM-4th
Caroline Leclair	50 free-4th, 100 free-1st, 200 free-1st, 100 back-1st, 200 back-1st, 100 fly-2nd, 200 IM-1st
Nic Salama-Siroishka	50 free-4th, 100 free-1st, 100 fly-1st, 200 IM-1st
Kiley Osborne	200 free-5th, 50 breast-4th
Jeremy Land	200 free-4th, 400 free-4th, 50 breast-5th, 200 breast-5th, 100 IM-1st, 200 IM-1st
Marco Petrella	200 free-5th, 400 free-4th, 100 breast-1st, 200 breast-1st
Morgan Taverner	200 free-5th, 400 free-2nd, 100 fly-6th, 200 fly-3rd, 200 IM-4th, 400 IM-3rd
Benjamin Lebrun	100 back-2nd, 200 back-3rd
Nicolas Lebrun	100 back-2nd, 200 back-3rd
Paige Fairlie	200 back-5th
Mitchell Grant	100 breast-5th, 200 breast-6th
Mia Scarpaleggia	50 fly-2nd
Jonathan Salama-Siroishka	100 fly-3rd, 200 fly-2nd, 400 IM-5th

06-03-2011 Message from the president,

Hello everyone,

A short end-of-season update.  Thank you to all of the volunteers who continue to dedicate their time and effort to helping the kids and the club remain successful.  We have one big BBF swim meet still to go, on the calendar….our June outdoor weekend meet that we hold every year, at the Baie d’Urfe pool.  This is a very key fundraising event and a really fun meet, for the kids to end the winter season.  Hopefully Mother Nature cooperates again this year and gives us another sunny, hot weekend.  You no doubt saw the note on the website that we are looking to invest in an electronic timing system, to make it a lot easier for Sarah, Katherine and the team to run our home meets, plus make it more enjoyable for all of you who are timing and helping out as well.  This is a substantial investment and will require some targeted fundraising in the coming months, plus a couple of very successful meets in order to pay it off.

We have just wrapped up three very successful team meets and seen a number of best times in the pool across the board.  Congratulations to all the swimmers.  Team Champs in Gatineau for the 11+ year old swimmers, where we placed second…BBF should back up to the Division 2 championship next year.  Regional Semis and Finals at DDO and PCSC, where most of the kids walked away with a medal in either the individual or team relay events.  Thank you to the all of the coaches who made these events so fun and successful and congratulations as well to all of the new Level 2 and 3 Bluefins officials for your accomplishments.

We have been trying to keep the records board and pictures more up-to-date this year, with photos of all of the current swimmers/coaches who have either individual or relay records.  It looks like we also have a couple of parents whose names who still hold records (they must have worn special suits for a few years back then as well)….perhaps we will also get their photos up in the coming weeks.  We will be getting locks on this board plus the one upstairs, which will also allow us to display some trophies and other gear and better showcase the club accomplishments.  Please let us know if you have any other suggestions as to what we could include or if you have anything to offer up.  Thank you to Bev Leith for all of her help here.  I have also been trying to update the website pictures on a fairly regular basis.  Hopefully the kids are enjoying this.  Please let me know if this is something we should continue.

You will notice that we have begun sending out a number of meet fees payment requests.  It’s that time of year and most, if not all, of us will need to top up our accounts for the final few events of the year.  Please help us out and get your cheques in as soon as you can.  We will try to coordinate deposits in the next couple of weeks, once we have them all in.  We also still have some equipment for sale (you no doubt saw this mentioned on the website.  Please see Cory Williams if you are interested.  We would like to clear out some of this stock before year-end, if possible. 

The Bluefins Awards Night will be held on Thursday, June 16 th, from 7 to 9 PM, at the Beaconsfield High School Auditorium.  We got a lot of positive feedback on the format and location of last year’s event, so we will be doing something similar this year, to celebrate the end of the season and the kids’ accomplishments.  The AGM will be held on June 20 th, at the Annex, at 7PM.  We will need some new participation on the club executive/board for the 2011-12 season.  Current open positions are VP, Treasurer, Registrar, Communications and Fundraising.  We are a volunteer-run organization though, so if anyone is interested in any of the other positions as well (including my own), please feel free to fill out a nomination form and we will definitely welcome you onto the executive team.  Nomination forms can either be dropped off at the Rec Centre front desk (ask them to put it in the Bluefins envelope) or given to one of the current Board members, by June 13 th.  Many thanks to all of the current board members for all of the time and assistance they have provided in running the club’s day-to-day operations.  

As always, if you have any issues or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to contact myself or any of the other Board members….there is typically at least one of us at the pool for the evening practices.

Simon Robins
President
Beaconsfield Bluefins

TEAM CHAMPS 2011
The Bluefins recently attended their Division III Provincial Team Championships. The meet took place in Gatineau on the last weekend of April. After three weeks of preparation, team practices and psyche-ups the Fins were ready and willing to go to battle against the 7 other Clubs in our Division. When the last race finished on Sunday night the Bluefins found themselves in Second Place in the Combined Team Score. The host Club Phenix de Gatineau finished with 1010.5 points to the Bluefins 818 and Les Riverains de Levi in third place had 509 points. “The 191.5 points difference that we were behind Gatineau is considerably less than the Pre-Meet Scoring indicated. We had a lot of swimmers move up the ranks to make Finals. Our Boys/Men’s team actually finished first in the meet!” said Head Coach Russ Franklin. “We had countless number of great personal swims but what the coaching staff is most proud of is the TOTAL TEAM EFFORT shown by everyone in and out of the pool.” Fanklin added.
The meet started Friday morning with 70 Bluefin swimmers creating a SEA OF BLUE around the pool deck, warming up and cheering led by our AMAZING 5 Captains. At the first finals that night, the sea of blue was replaced with the ORANGE CRUSH . The team mascot, THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR, ceremoniously anointed the Gatineau pool with water from our Beaconsfield pool while the Fins went crazy!
The Excitement, Energy and Team Spirit were non-stop through out the meet and obviously contributed to our good results. The Bluefins had an impressive 58 different swimmers competing in Finals combining for a grand total of 177 swims in Finals. Twenty-four Bluefins won one or more medals. We had 58 individual medals and 11 Relay medals.

The entire weekend was a huge success thanks to:
-The Coaching Staff Louis, Jordan, Etienne, Spencer, Russ, (guest appearance by Matt and Tim)
-The five AMAZING CAPTAINS Bruno Giroux, Jenna Thompson, Michael Luck, Caroline Leclair, Nic Salama-Siroishka
-The Super Human Chaperones Isabelle Belanger, Laurene Head
-THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR Marco Petrella
-All of the ”PUMPED UP” Bluefins Swimmers

Medal Winners :

Finalists :

Madison Llano	50 free, 800 free, 200 back, 50 fly
Connor Ising	50 free, 400 free, 200 IM
Alexander Laroche	50 free, 200 free, 400 free, 50 back, 400 IM
Jacob Rizzuto	50 free, 400 free, 50 back
Kayla Zakuta	50 free, 100 free, 200 free, 400 free
Emily Hamilton	50 free
Jonathan Wong	50 free, 100 free
Trevor Ludgate	50 free, 400 free, 1500 free
Sara Armistead	50 free, 200 back
Guillaume Bergeron-Miron	50 free
Nic Salama-Siroishka	50 free, 100 fly, 200 IM
Laura Mendonca	50 free, 100 free, 100 back, 100 breast, 200 IM
Bruno Giroux	50 free, 100 free, 100 breast, 200 breast
Camille Bergeron-Miron	100 free, 200 free
Marc Anthony Dagenais	100 free, 100 breast, 200 breast
Elise Lebrun	100 free, 400 free, 100 back, 200 back
Jeremy Land	200 free, 50 breast, 200 breast
Alexandre Grant	200 free, 200 back, 400 IM
Chris Arella	200 free, 200 breast
Simon Lebel	400 free, 400 IM
Nic Lebrun	400 free, 100 back, 200 back,
Jon Salama-Siroishka	400 free, 1500 free, 100 fly, 200 fly
Alex Ingrouille	400 free
Caroline Leclair	400 free, 100 back, 200 IM
Kirk Shaw-Muller	400 free, 100 back, 200 back, 100 fly, 200 fly
Benjamin Lebrun	50 back
Katelyn Downey	200 back, 50 fly, 200 IM
Pascale Robins	200 back
Kiley Osborne	50 breast, 200 breast
Amanda Laplante	50 breast
Mitchell Cameron	50 breast
Vincent Cameron	100 breast, 200 breast, 400 IM
Mitchell Grant	100 breast
Alexander Grant	100 breast
Marco Petrella	100 breast, 200 breast
Sophie Overnay-Ragan	100 breast, 200 breast, 100 fly
Diana Mitroi-Banu	200 breast
Dominic Hughes	200 breast
Matt Khatchadourian	200 breast, 200 IM
Mia Scarpaleggia	50 fly
Kenny Anne Critch	50 fly
Evan Hirschbach	200 IM, 400 IM
Jenna Thompson	400 IM
Andrew Ward	400 IM

Swimmers having a great meet and fantastic Team Spirit: Juilette Rose, Natasha Puyjalon, Angela Santamaria, Lauren Kuppens, Stephanie Wong, Paige Fairlie, Kaitlyn Hall, Bianca Schweers, Rebecca Difruscia, Madison Schapowal, Delphy Boudreau, Jessica Houston, Stephanie Giroux, Esther Savoure, Liam Robins, Julie-Anne Tetu, Valerie Boulet, Kyle Kuppen, Alex Tardy, Taylor Goldsbourgh

Congratulations to Brandon Adams for attaining his AGE GROUP NATIONAL standards in the 100 Free and 100 Back. Also Congrats to Evan Hirschbach and Vincent Cameron for getting their IM P2 standards!!

FESTIVAL D'HIVER P1 2011
The weekend of February 11 th was the date of the Provincial 1 Festival d’Hiver hosted by the Beaconsfield Bluefins. The Club and its swimmers had an outstanding meet. As an Organization, the Bluefins ran a super competition over the 2 and ½ days. The meet required an army of volunteers, led by our Meet Manager Sarah Marshall and her Committee to pull this one off. A huge “Thank You” goes out to all the volunteers in the office, on the deck, and in the kitchen. A special thanks to the many parents/swimmers who volunteered even though they were not directly involved with this meet.

The swimmers in the pool did an amazing job competing for the FINS. With the team’s theme of the meet being; “OUR HOUSE” the kids stepped up to the plate and hit a homerun! The Bluefins finished a comfortable 2 nd in the overall team standings behind Pointe-Claire and ahead of Piscine Parc Olympique. Head Coach, Russ Franklin remarked “I am really proud of our individual and team results. We out swam the competition in term of our “per capita” number of finalist and medal winners. Our swims at night were awesome as Bluefins swimmers time and time again move up in the scoring by out swimming the other clubs. I have no problem finishing second in this competition because we swam great. In the end, we were out numbered!”

Some of the impressive meet statistics for the Club include winning 78 medals in total, winning the Gold in 35 events (nearest rival winning 29 Gold). The Fins won 6 out of the 12 Relays (nearest rival winning 5). Beaconsfield had 150 swimmers in the finals and a whopping 78% swam faster at night. The Bluefins would like to congratulate the Coaching Staff for a job well done. Each participating group coach had finalists in this meet.

Listing all the Medalists and Finalist from this meet takes some time but for this Championship meet….well worth it! There were 27 different Bluefins that earned a medal in this meet. Multiple Individual Event Gold Medalist were: Jacob Rizzuto, Alexandre Grant, Camille Bergeron-Miron, Caroline Leclair, Andrew Ward and Katelyn Downey.

AQUAFÊTE 2011
The Bluefins Swim Club made its annual pilgrimage to the Old City of Quebec to compete in the 2011 version of the “Aquafete du Carnival”. As the name of the meet would imply, Bluefins’ family members also enjoyed time at the Winter Festival, rubbing shoulders with Le Bonne-Homme Carnival.
The two day competition is divided into morning and afternoon sessions. The Fins competed in the morning sessions and leading the way for the Team was Philippe Robins and Bianca Schweers.
Philippe placed First in the 200 IM, 50 Back and the 200 Free where he broke his own CLUB RECORD with a time of 2:58.43. Phil also finished Second in the 50 Free and Third in the 100 IM.
Bianca took Top Spot in the 100 IM and 200 Free events and placed Second in both the 50 Breast and 50 Fly.
The 8 & Under Medley Relay team of Philippe Robins, Max Bolcato, Zachary Gauthier and Kyle Bouchard established a CLUB RECORD with a time of 3:32.15

Congratulations to all swimmers !

CAMO INVITATIONAL - DECEMBER 2010
The Bluefins’ P1 – P2 swimmers went to CAMO to participate in the last meet of the 2010 calendar year. The competition was a success for the Club with a more than healthy number of Personal Best times turned in by our swimmers. With over 700 hundred swimmers from Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes competing in the meet, medals were hard to come by. Leading the way for the Bluefins was Michael Luck (19) took the Gold medal in the 200m IM setting a New Club Record and making his Senior National time standard in that event. Michael also picked up two Silver medals in the 50m and 200m Freestyle events. Kirk Shaw-Muller (17) and Diana Mitroi-Banu (16) also took home some of the hardware; Kirk swam to the Silver medal in the 50m in the 50m Backstroke with a Best Time that qualifies for the Eastern Nationals and Diana swam a Best Time in the 400m IM capturing the Bronze medal.

The three day meet saw seventeen different Fins make it to the Finals. The finalists were:

New Qualifying Standards

The coaching staff would like to congratulate all the Bluefin swimmers who practiced hard to achieve their results.

BLUEFINS BATTLE IN BRANTFORD - NOVEMBER 2010 
The weekend of November 12-14 saw 45 Bluefin Age Group swimmers travel to Brantford for the annual International Swim Meet. The competition proved to be tough, so making finals was a challenge. Congratulations to all those swimmers who swam personal best times and “Hats Off” to the entire team who showed Great Spirit throughout the meet. A big thank you goes to our two Chaperones Cory and Isabelle for making the meet a success. Top Ten Finishers: 11 & 12 : Connor Isings 7 th 100 Breast, Alexander Laroche 5 th 400 Freestyle, Duncan Burns 8 th 100 Breast and 9 th 200 Breast, Benjamin Lebrun 7 th 200 Breast. Top Ten Finishers: 13 & 14 : Alexandre Grant 4 th 50 Freestyle and 5 th 100 Back, Jonathan Salama-Sirioshka 5 th 200 Fly, Sydney Salim 6 th 200 IM, 4 x 50 Free Relay: 6 th Camille Bergeron-Miron, Pascale Robins, Kayla Zakuta, Sydney Salim, 8 th Marc Anthony Dagenais, Jonathan Wong, Jonathan Salama-Siroishka, Alexandre Grant, 4 x 50 Medley Relay: 10 th Alexandre Grant, Vincent Cameron, Jonathan Salama-Siroishka, Marc Anthony Dagenais, Top Ten Finishers: 15 & 16 :Guillau me Bergeron-Miron 8 th 100 Back. Top Ten Finishers: 17+ : Caroline Leclair 10 th 100 Back, Kirk Shaw-Muller 9 th 100 Back, 4 x 50 Free Relay : 6 th Caroline Leclair, Rebecca Difruscia, Angela Santamaria, Paige Fairlie, 6 th Kirk Shaw-Muller, Andrew Ward, Guillaume Bergeron-Miron, Bruno Giroux, 4 x 50 Medley Relay : 8 th Caroline Leclair, Valerie Boulet, Kelsey Morin, Paige Fairlie, 5 th Guillaume Bergeron-Miron, Bruno Giroux, Kirk Shaw-Muller, Andrew Ward

TEAM CHAMPS 2010: 
The Quebec Division II Team Championship was held on the weekend of April 30 th.  The three day competition was held at the pool in Longueuil.  Swimmers were allowed to swim a maximum of five events each, with the top six swimmers in each event advancing to the evening Finals, scoring points towards the team’s total point score.  The Bluefins finished 5 th overcoming a projected 116 point deficit from our nearest rivals from Levis Quebec.  The Fins were behind after day one and two but had closed the gap going into the Finals on Sunday night.  The Team met before Finals on the last night to discuss what we had to do to advance in the Team Rankings.  The Fins responded well to the “Pep Talk” delivered by Valerie Debroux who was one of our Team Captains.  We swam great in all of our Individual and Relay Finals and over took Les Riverains in the Relays.  The Bluefins had 72 members participate in the biggest “Team Meet” of the year.  There were 39 Finalist winning 35 medals including 9 out of 16 for the Relays.  Leading the Fins was Team Captain, Valerie Debroux who brought home 4 medals.  She was the top swimmer in the 100 – 200 Breast and 200 Fly winning the Gold.  She picked up her 4 th medal, Silver in the 400 IM. 
Other individual medal winners for the Bluefins :  Guillaume Bergeron-Miron was the fastest in the 100 Breast and took the Bronze Medals for his 100 Back and 200 Breast.  His time in the 200 Breast beat the Age Group Nationals’ qualifying standard.  Marie Anne Ruel finished second in three events getting Silver Medals in her two Backstroke events and the 200 IM.  Maxime Shapowal showed his stuff in the Breaststroke taking the Silver in the 200 and Bronze in the 50.  Max also swam the grueling 1500 Freestyle and was awarded the Bronze medal for his effort.  Jenna Thompson, who made finals in all of her events, was the third place finisher in three; 100 – 200 Backstroke and the 50 Freestyle.  Laura Mendonca was the Gold Medalist in the women’s 200 Backstroke and was a close second in the 100 Back.  Kirk Shaw-Muller was a double medalist, taking the Silver Medals in both his Backstroke events.  Pascale Robins, who did a great job anchoring the Relays, and picked up two Silver Medals in the 100 – 200 Freestyle events.  Andrew Ward was the second place finisher in the 200 Backstroke and took home the Bronze Medal in the 50 Free.  Sydney Salim made her Eastern Nationals’ time standard winning the 50 Freestyle on the last night.  Jonathan Salama Siroishka aka “Iron Man” swam all the easy events; 1500 - 400 Free, 200 Fly, 400 – 200 IM.  He qualified for finals in every event but was unfortunately DQ’ed in his 400 IM.  Jonathan did take home a piece of hardware, a Bronze Medal in the 200 IM.  The all the Relays were very good for the Bluefins, scoring a bunch of points for the Club.  Even the 11&12 Boys’ Relay that was re-instated after the team’s disqualification was over turned, won a Bronze Medal thanks in large part to the two “Super Subs” (Benjamin Lebrun and Liam Robins) who filled in for swimmers that had gone home.  New Provincial II Qualifiers :  Duncan Burns, Kayla Zakuta, Valerie Boulet