There aren’t that many sports where coaches and their athletes compete together in the same event in the BC Summer Swim Association it’s not that unusual.
Justine Guillet, an assistant coach with the Prince George Pisces Swim Club, has taken advantage of that opportunity to set the bar high for her club in swim racing.
Competing in Division 8 at the BC Summer Swim Association provincial championships at this past weekend at the Prince George Aquatic Centre, the 23-year-old captured four medals at her home pool.
Already blessed with an athlete’s engine, having grown up playing competitive soccer, volleyball, basketball, hockey, judo, combined with her maturity as a coach, working under the influence of Pisces head coach Ian Williams, Guillet has developed an exceptional work ethic that’s paying in consistent clock reductions in her race times.
It was a rare luxury competing is such a big event, minutes from her College Heights home, and Guillet used that to her advantage.
“With this being in my home town I could just visualize my race way better and walk in and rest up in my own bed, it makes a huge difference,” said Guillet.
“It’s quite a contrast from traveling nine hours of 13 hours when there’s delays that happen and I’m way more rested going into this meet. It can make your rise to that extra level and we’re seeing certain kids hitting crazy best times and this is the place to do it,”
Guillet was chasing University of Calgary Dinos swimmer Myriam Hickey of Chilliwack in the 50 m free on Friday (Aug. 17) and Guillet won the silver medal, finishing just two-tenths of a second off Hickey’s winning pace. Guillet’s time (26.71) took 57-100ths of second off her previous best.
“I was super happy, I was almost bang-on – a best time – so it was a really great race for me,” said Guillet. “I’ve just focused on the process this year leading me to certain times and if I follow steps X, Y and Z it’s led me to my times.”
The Pisces swimmer won bronze in the 100 free, posting a time of 1:00.98, while Hickey reeled in gold in 58.50. Guillet just missed the podium in two other individual events, finishing fourth in 40 butterfly (30.78) and fifth in the 100 fly (1:11:13)
She also teamed up with Jocelyn Murguly, Summer Maritsas and Emma Watson to win two relay medals. The Pisces team took silver in the 200 freestyle relay and they were bronze medalists in the 200 medley relay.
“That went really well,” said Guillet, who swam the butterfly leg, “I haven’t been on a relay that’s placed or made finals ever in Pisces, so even to make finals was a step up.”
She also competed in the 200 regional medley relay.
Guillet swam with the Pisces as a young teenager and came back to the club four years ago, after Williams returned from Victoria to take on the head coaching position. Since Williams took over in 2018, the club has grown from 35 competitive racers to 260 this year.
“She’s awesome, she’s one of our assistant head coaches and puts a lot of work in outside of coaching hours to swim and try and perform at her best, and she’s dropping a chunk of time, going into provincials top-ranked in 50 free,” said Pisces head coach Ian Williams.
“She swims freestyle mostly, but her butterfly and breaststroke are quite strong and she’s dropping time on everything this year so she’s turning into a powerhouse in all the strokes really.”
Guillet raced in her first provincial championship meet three years ago in Vancouver and was encouraged by her results at the UBC pool.
“I kind of surprised myself at how fast I went but also I remember watching some other simmers and getting really inspired,” said Guillet. “There was this girl, Josie Field (a UBC swimmer from Langley) and she swam a 26.50 freestyle in the final and she gapped everybody and got first place. I can remember thinking, wow, that would be crazy of I could do that and now I’m swimming a similar time.”
“It’s definitely inspiring to feel like I fit in with some of these university swimmers, maybe I could take it a step further and get into a school,” she said.
She’s already armed with a degree in biomedical studies from UNBC and she’s considering options to continue her education with masters studies in physiotherapy of ports psychology at another school that offers a U SPORTS varsity swimming career.
