Prince George Barracudas swimmer Sydney Lopez was all smiles Sunday after seeing her report card from the Dental Moose Meet.
It was plastered with double-A's. That meant the 13-year-old met qualifying standards for the double-A provincial championships for the first time.
"I've never got provincial times before," said Lopez. "I was getting pretty close in practice and I knew which races I was going to get them in but I didn't know I was going to swim that hard to get them."
Lopez posted double-A provincial times in five events -- 200-metre freestyle, 200 individual medley, 100 backstroke, 200 backstroke and 100 breaststroke. She won 200 back and 100 breast finals, came third in the 200 IM and was fourth in the 200 free.
"The 200 IM is my favorite because it's a variety of everything," Lopez said. "The fly is something else, it requires all muscle strength and I'm still getting that. I definitely want to improve on my fly."
While she just started competitive swimming last season, Lopez already had an athletic engine before she joined the Barracudas. She was captain of the Duchess Park Park Condors junior A basketball team which finished third in the zone this season. She still wants to play basketball and will probably play on a summer team, but for now her athletic efforts are focused 100 per cent on swimming.
"I've been playing basketball since Grade 2, and it's my Number 1 sport, but swimming is kind of taking over it," Lopez said. "It's just totally different. I'm still a kid and I still want to do different things.
"I'm one of the younger kids in the elite group and it makes me feel like I need to swim faster to keep up with everyone else. The coaches push you really hard and it's different than any other sport."
Although her weekend performance in the Aquatic Centre pool brought significant milestones, she'll have to start with a clean slate because she's about to be bumped up one age category. She turns 14 in May and that means all five double-A times she achieved at the Dental Meet aren't fast enough for the provincial meet. There's still one more meet -- the Kamloops June Classic, May 30-June 1 -- for her to make the grade for provincials June 20-22 in Victoria. She needs at least two double-A times to qualify and Barracudas coach Jason Smith says that's well within her reach.
"She should do it, she's about three or four seconds off in those events and we have six weeks to train," said Smith.
"She's worked hard to get to what she wants to do and there are certain things that are more trying for her in swimming than for other kids. Having said that, she's a very athletic girl and it comes a little more naturally for her to pick it up and learn it and understand it than for other swimmers."
Lopez is being considered for the Zone 8 team Smith will coach at the B.C. Summer Games July 17-20 in Nanaimo, along with Barracudas clubmates Skylar Lewington and Jackson Girard, as well as Dylan Joyce of Chetwynd, Emerie Watson of Quesnel and Mitchell Ryan of Williams Lake.
