Sydney Casey would be a prime candidate for the Zone 8 swim team at the B.C. Summer Games this July in Abbotsford.
That is, if she wasn't already going there to play softball.
As good as Casey is as a swim racer, as she demonstrated this past weekend at the Aquatic Centre, she's even more of a standout playing shortstop or second base for the Prince George Thunderbirds bantam girls softball team and she's a shoo-in to make the North Central Interior select team that will compete at the Games,
July 21-24.
Now in her ninth season of swimming with the Prince George Barracudas Swim Club, Casey had a breakthrough weekend at the Dental Moose Meet, her first long course meet of the season, when she achieved double-A qualifying standards for 15-year-olds in two events - 100-metre butterfly and 100 m backstroke.
But until she saw her times posted on the scoreboard at the Aquatic Centre, she thought she wasted her opportunities.
"I was really pumped for that (100 m butterfly) race and I wanted to get that double-A time and at the end of the race I thought I didn't do very well - I thought my underwater dolphin kick might have slowed me down a bit but actually I did better than I thought," said Casey.
"Right after that I did the 100 backstroke and I didn't think I'd get that time but then I checked the sheet again and I did the time. That made my weekend. I got my double-A times for the first time last year but I aged up so I had to work for them again. This was one of my best long course meets."
A double-A standard in swimming is one step below a triple-A provincial qualifying time, the highest qualifying level for swimmers.
The B.C. Games swim competition is open to swimmers aged 12-14 and the qualifying criteria is based on short course (25 metre) times.
All Games swimmers must already have double-A times.
Casey's softball team has been working out for months indoors at the Northern Sport Centre.
But with the fields already dry after an abnormally warm and short winter the T-birds have been training outdoors at Chuck Cawdell Field for the past two weeks, well ahead of schedule. They'll play their first tournament this weekend in Surrey.
"My team is really good," she said. "We'll be having our trials May 1st for all girls from around (north central) B.C. to try out to make the team and I feel confident I'll make it."
Casey, who turns 15 in May, also excels at basketball. This past winter she played as a guard or wing for the Duchess Park Condors junior B team and she also plays club basketball at UNBC in the Junior Timberwolves program.
"Three sports is really hard to juggle," said Casey.
"Swimming was one of the first sports I started, when I was six. I love just the adrenaline rush you get from racing, and all my friends are here. It helps me with all my sports. My cardio is great."
