When Haley Black was at the Olympic trials last year in Victoria, she refrained from asking Team Canada members Annamay Pierse, Audrey Lacroix and Brent Hayden to sign her swimming cap.
She's not sure if she'll be able to hold back this year.
Black may or may not go autograph hunting at the trials, March 27 to April 1 in Montreal. But, the 15-year-old member of the Prince George Barracudas will certainly be chasing some fast times in the pool. Her best events are the 100-metre butterfly and 200m butterfly and she'd like to qualify for the 'A' finals in both of them. To do that, she'll need top-eight finishes in the preliminaries.
"I'd have to go best times by two or three seconds or more," said Black, a Grade 10 student at Duchess Park. "I think I can do it because I'm training hard."
In the 100 fly, Black's personal-best clocking of 1:00.23 (short course, or 25m pool) has her ranked second in Canada in her age group. With a time of 2:11.58, she's also second nationally in the 200 fly. Black put up those times at the Western Canadian championships in February in Winnipeg.
Black's coach, Jerzy Partyka, wouldn't be surprised to see her advance to the 'A' finals at the trials, which will be a long course (50m pool) event. If she accomplishes that feat, she'll likely be the youngest swimmer in the field. Partyka points out that, because Black is only 15, she'll get much faster in the coming years.
"There's lots of room for improvement," he said. "When you're 15, you're improving more than the oldest swimmers. She's swimming really good. All her events are improving constantly. It's very exciting."
Black, a Barracudas club member since the age of six, normally practices 10 times each week. She does morning and afternoon sessions at the Prince George Aquatic Centre and her hard work is obviously paying off. She said she's "definitely" swimming at her best right now.
"Since last year I'm more serious about it because I'm more confident in myself," she said.
Two of Black's Barracudas teammates -- Danica Ludlow and Sterling King -- will also attend the Olympic trials.
All three athletes competed at the B.C. short course championships earlier this month in Surrey and helped the Barracudas finish seventh overall in the team standings. Club members posted 38 top-three finishes (15 gold medals, nine silver medals, 14 bronze medals) and combined to set eight new Barracudas records. New individual record-holders, in various categories and events, are Black, Ludlow, King (2), Josiah Binnema (2) and Patricia Fortier. In the girls 15- to 17-year-old 4x50 freestyle relay, Black, Ludlow, Fortier and Jessa Wing established a new standard of 1:53.35. That topped the old record of 1:54.31, set in 2009 by Katie Mann, Grace Ni, Jessica Ballantyne and Kailey Tress.
