A group of Guelph Marlin Aquatic Club boys have made a mess of Swimming Canada's record book.
In various combinations, twins Marcus Beckstead-Holman and William Beckstead-Holman and clubmates Russell Burton, Colin Campbell and Tristan Jankovics have set six boys' 11-12 age group relay records this year.
"We started this year with the goal of let's see if we can figure how to get four of our boys to the point where we can set at least a record and we managed to get five of the boys to the point where we could set six," Marlins' coach Laura McPhie said. "That's pretty awesome."
The Marlins now hold short course records in the 200, 400 and 800-metre freestyle relays and 200m medley relay and long course records in the 200 and 400m freestyle relays.
"We knew we had chance at a lot of them and we suddenly got close to the freestyle ones which were the ones that we were more shaky on at the beginning of the year," McPhie said. "Now they're definitely the ones we're more solid on. At one point of the year we realized we could probably do a sweep of 10, all 10 records. It was just a matter of getting enough swim meets to do so. We're still battling with that, trying to find enough opportunities to swim before the first boy's age is up."
The Beckstead-Holmans, Burton and Campbell have claimed the freestyle records while Jankovics joined the twins and Burton for the medley record.
"It's just a convergence and skill," McPhie said. "All of these boys have been trained and raised in Guelph in our program and the way it has come together is amazing."
At the start of the year, the McPhie and club head coach Kendra Burton approached the youngsters with the idea of going on an assault of the record book.
"At the beginning of the year we weren't really that close," McPhie said. "We used it as a way to motivate them to come together. It's useful to have one fast swimmer in the club, but if you can get a cluster of fast swimmers together, that would work. We dangled that in front of them."
While the Marlins claimed records by small margins in the shorter distances, they crushed the existing marks in the longer distances. They were about 3.5 seconds under the previous record in the 400m short course freestyle relay, around 4.5 seconds under the old 400m long course freestyle relay and almost 11 seconds quicker than the previous short course 800m freestyle relay record.
"We started doing special practices for them and whatnot," McPhie said. "We had a group of swimmers all step forward and really take their times down to make this a successful year."
The first record of the year came at their own Victor Davis Memorial Meet at the Victor Davis Pool on the final day of the three-day meet.
"They got it and they got it pretty easily as well," McPhie said. "After that it's just been a matter of setting up the time and every time they step on the blocks there's a highly likely chance they'll get a relay (record)."
This weekend the Marlins are to compete in Swim Ontario's summer long course championships at Etobicoke. They're heading into that meet with the 200 and 400m freestyle and medley records in their sights.
"The one we're going to miss there is the 4x200m (800m) freestyle because of the way Swim Ontario has set it up," McPhie said. "Only the top eight teams can race and it's an open category. Our boys are fast, but they're not 18-year-old fast."
