Stefan Milosevic made a statement at the Canadian summer senior nationals swim meet in Pointe Claire, Que., last week.
The 17-year-old Hyack club swimmer opened the four-day competition with a thrilling firstplace win the men's 200-metre freestyle final.
Milosevic's time of 1:51.18 was just under a second away from Brian Johns' 2000 provincial record of 1:50.34.
The following day in the preliminary heats, the Cariboo Hill Secondary student set a new provincial
boys' 15/17 record, bettering former world champion Brent Hayden's age-group mark with a 51.41 time in the 100m free en route to a silver-medal finish in the final.
"It was a pretty exciting 200, with four guys coming in all within four-tenths of a second, and Stefan got his hand on the wall first," said Hyack head coach Mark Bottrill. "It's been the mid-1990s since the last time something like that has happened. "For a club like the Hyacks to get a medal at the seniors for a male age-class swimmer, it's pretty amazing."
Milosevic outtouched 23-yearold
University of Calgary swimmer David Woodman for the 200m gold medal in the sprint to the finish.
In the 100m free, Milosevic was just one-tenth of a second behind Oakville's Bryce Kwiechien-Delaney in a tight final, where the top-eight swimmers were all under 52 seconds.
Later in the day, Milosevic also made the final in the men's 400m individual medley.
Milosevic placed in a tie for fifth place in the overall men's high point standings.
Two other B.C. swimmers posted a win on the first day of competition.
Heather MacLean won the women's 200m free in 2:01.13, while 15-year-old Emily Overholt took the national title in the women's 200m butterfly in a time of 2:13.76.
For Milosevic and Overholt, their wins secured each of them a spot on Canada's world junior championships team, which will be held in Dubai in late August.
Hyacks' Mia Bottrill won the B final in the women's 200m butterfly on Day 1. Sara Whelan placed 13th in the women's 1,500m open freestyle on the opening day of competition. Whelan also competed in the 800m free.
