The Hyack Swim Club is back on top for the first time in decades at the Swim B.C. AAA long course championships in Richmond last week.
The Hyack club earned the aggregate team title on the final night of racing to win its first provincial long course title since the 1980s at Watermania in Richmond on Sunday.
"This is a historic achievement for the club," said Hyack club head coach Mark Bottrill.
Sherry Liu of Burnaby led the squad with four gold medals in the girls' 18-year-old division, winning the 200-, 400-and 800metre freestyle and 400m individual medley. Liu also picked up a runner-up medal in the 100m free and a bronze in the 200m IM.
Two up-and-coming Hyack swimmers also had multi-medal performances at the four-day meet, including five provincial records.
Wendy Yang of Burnaby won four gold and one silver medal in the 13-yearold girls' division in a record showing.
Yang set new age group records in the 50m free in 27.70 and 100m backstroke in 1: 09.56. She also tied the provincial record in the 100m butterfly with a 1: 05.84 clocking. Yang also won gold in the 100m free and a silver in the 200m free.
New Westminster's Ethan Liang, 11, set two new age-group marks in the boys' 100 and 200m breaststroke, winning the former in a record time of 1: 18.12 and the latter in 2: 48.07.
"He could be the next big guy," said Bottrill of the young Royal City swimmer. "He just crushed everybody in his age category in the breaststroke."
Liang also earned bronze medals in the 100m backstroke and 200 and 400 IM.
Stefan Milosevic, 16, competed well in the senior boys' division, earning a total of six medals.
The Cariboo Hill Secondary student won four silver medals in the 200, 400 and 1,500m free and 200m fly, while also taking home a pair of bronze in the 200m back and 400m IM.
Sara Whelan garnered five medals in the 14-yearold girls' category, earning three silver in the 100m breast and 400 and 800m free. She also medalled in the 100m free and 400m IM.
Dima Lim, 11, won three medals, including a pair of silvers in the 100m back and 200m free.
The win was the first B.C. long-course title for the New Westminsterbased Hyacks in 26 years.
Last year, the Hyacks placed second and third overall at the short-and long-course provincials, respectively. The club placed fifth at this year's short course meet but only by 100 points.
"They all had to more or less fire to get the big-point categories - gold through bronze," Bottrill said. "We won our Stanley Cup."
The Hyacks edged runner-up Island Swimming and the Pacific Sea Wolves clubs for top sport.
"What it does indicate for us is we're a club that absolutely grows our own swimmers from the grass roots," Bottrill said of the club's 8-to-10 development programs. "A big shout out to everyone who has being supporting us. We've been in the hunt for a while and wanted to keep the momentum up."
Other medallists included Chris Baker, Mia Bottrill, gold medallist Abi Sayer, Jasmine Whelan, Maria Carey, Devon Joanis, Christopher Polok, Mark Pang, Hattie Sun and Kiana Stark.
Inder Pooni, Elaine Lam, Justin Kiedrzyn, Daniel Gomez, Igor Gasovic Varga and Jeremy Au also shared in the medals on Hyack relay teams. Hayden Pak, Connor Toomey, Victoria Montgomery, Tara Shirbani and Sehajvir Sing also turned in final top-eight swims.
More than 50 provincial records were bettered over the course of the four-day meet.
The Hyacks led the meet for the first two days but fell to second place before rallying to win on the final day.
