Every time he climbed out of the pool, Sterling King had a new record attached to him.
At the Swim B.C. triple-A championships in Victoria on the weekend, the 15-year-old member of the Prince George Barracudas set new club standards in six of his events. King posted his most impressive result in the 400-metre freestyle, where he stroked to gold in a record time of four minutes 6.40 seconds. That obliterated the old mark of 4:13.68, established two years ago by Andrew Chrobot. In the race, King also went well under his previous-best clocking of 4:15.
"He's always swimming well," Barracudas assistant coach Jason Smith said of King. "He's disciplined in his training, pays attention to what [head coach] Jerzy [Partyka] asks him to do. That, and he's a machine," Smith added with a chuckle.
King also etched his name in the club record book in the 1,500m freestyle. There, his time of 16:32.67 also topped an effort by Chrobot, who completed the race in 16:43.69 in the summer of 2008. King's other record swims came in the 100m freestyle, 200m freestyle, 200m butterfly and 100m butterfly. In the 1,500 free, 100 free, 200 free, 200 fly and 100 fly, King finished in silver-medal position.
At provincials, King helped the Barracudas finish 10th out of 40 clubs. The sixteen P.G. swimmers in attendance accounted for 11 gold medals, nine silver medals and five bronze medals.
Some of the other highlight performances were given by 14-year-olds Danica Ludlow, Haley Black and Bailey Hardy. Ludlow was golden in the 100m freestyle and 400m freestyle, while Black -- in record times -- touched the wall first in the 100m backstroke and 200m butterfly and was second in the 200m individual medley. Hardy zipped to silver in the 100m breaststroke in a club-record time of 1:16.68. The old record belonged to Katie Mann (1:17.66, set in 2007).
In the girls 14-and-under medley relay, Ludlow, Black, Hardy and Jessa Wing teamed up for gold. They set a new club standard of 2:05.17 and just missed the provincial record of 2:04.18.
The championships attracted close to 600 swimmers.
