Katrina Heinonen was the toast of the B.C. Summer Swimming Association provincial championships in Nanaimo.
The Division 6 Burnaby Barracudas swimmer won four individual medals and set three provincial pool records at the Nanaimo Aquatic Centre Aug. 17 through 19.
Heinonen won her first gold in the 200-metre individual medley, beating Salmon Arm's Lisa Jane Kitchen by more than three seconds in a record time of 2: 26.96.
She then posted a record time of 1: 05.26 in the 100m butterfly, eclipsing Salt Spring Stingrays' Cassidy Fraser by almost four seconds for the gold.
Heinonen followed that up with a third consecutive B.C. mark, following a 29.23 goldmedal clocking in the 50m fly.
Heinonen also picked up a fourth individual gold in the 100m breaststroke and a relay gold with teammate Kelly Pickthall on the Simon Fraser regional team in the 200m medley.
Div. 2 Octavia Lau also swam away with four medals, including gold in both the 50m freestyle and 100m IM. She also placed second in the 50m fly and 100m free and picked up a pair of relay silvers on the Barracudas' and regional medley teams.
Garrett Yeo and Gareth Jones also had strong swims at the provincials.
Yeo won the Div. 3 boys' 50m breast and picked up two silver in the 50m fly and 100m IM. Yeo also shared a pair of relay gold in the 200m regional medley and as an underage on the Div. 4 club freestyle team with Jones, Xavier Lau and Rowan Cheung.
Jones won the 50m breast and placed runner-up in the 100m backstroke and 200m IM. Jones also earned a team silver with clubmate Lau on the regional medley relay.
Edward Wong and Jakub Vincalek both earned bronze medals in breaststroke.
Wong also earned a first-place medal on the Div. 3 regional medley team.
Vincalek shared a second bronze on the Div. 6 boys' 200m medley relay with Brian Huynh, Leo Shen and Henry McKenzie. Shen had a second bronze on the region medley relay team.
Deanna Dang, Alexa Tran and Isabella Cesareo shared a silver medal in the Div. 2 girls' medley relay.
Jacky Tat earned a bronze medal with the regional Div. 5 boys' medley relay team.
Winter swimmer May Li led the Burnaby Mountain Mantas with two gold and two silver medals in O category 2 races. Li won both the 50m fly and 100m back, while finishing second in the 100m fly and 200m IM.
Sayla Briggs also won gold for the Mantas, winning the Div. 3 girls' 50m breast. Briggs also earned two relay medals, taking silver in the 200m medley with clubmates Jasmine Morrison, Yimi Huang and Lauryn Sartori, and a bronze in the regional medley with Sartori.
Mantas club coach Sean Nugent was runner-up in Div. 8 in the 50 and 100m fly. Vincent Chung matched Nugent's efforts in the Div. 7 fly earning a pair of bronze medals.
Elton Lai swam to silver in the Div. 3 50m free. Lai also won a gold on the 200m region medley relay team. Bryan Yu placed second in the Div. 4 boys' 50m fly. Yu also had a second-place medal with Manta clubmate Harvey Lee on the all-region medley team.
Shawn Huang was runner-up in the Div. 3 boys' 50m breast, while Kevin Nickerson was second in the Div. 8 100m free. Nickerson, Nugent, Chung and Div. 6 Henry Huang earned a relay bronze in the Div. 8 medley relay.
The Mantas earned more medals in the regional relays.
D.J. Tsang and Derek Shi placed second in the Div. 2 medley, while four-event individual finalist Hannah Cui swam home with a silver with the Simon Fraser team. Kenneth Ng picked up a regional team bronze in the Div. 5 boys' medley, as did Jacky Tung on the Div. 6 boys' relay team.
The Barracudas just edged out the Mountain Mantas for 11th place by less than two points in the team aggregate.
White Rock was named the provincial team champion, followed by runner-up Richmond and Vancouver.
Simon Fraser finished in third place in combined regional scoring behind both Fraser South and Vancouver. The PoCo Marlins were the highest scoring club from the Simon Fraser region.
