News Archive

Oak wins Victor Davis Meet

Zack Chetrat leads Oakville Aquatic Club team of rookies and veterans qualifying for first Senior International Team at CN Olympic Swimming

Zack Chetrat of Oakville Aquatic Club was all smiles following a week of successful swimming performances at the 2008 CN Olympic Swimming Trials in Montreal held April 1-6.  Chetrat had a breakthrough performance in the 200 butterfly qualifying for the A final (top 8) in the men's 200 butterfly.  His time of 2:02.79 ranks him 6th in the country and the top 17 year old male.  His performance also qualified him for his first Senior International Team - the Tri Nations Cup, to  be held in August in Quebec City.    Swimming/Natation Canada (SNC)
has deemed the Tri Nations team an international opportunity for the next generation of Olympians - A team of 52 swimmers on a development path towards the 2012 Olympic Games in London will compete against swimmers from France and England.  Chetrat has had an incredible year of racing winning gold in his age category in the 200 butterfly at two other international competitions in Geneva and Luxembourg as part of an SNC Junior Tour Team this past January.

Chetrat was not the only Oakville Aquatic Club swimmer to have breakthrough performances in Montreal.  Teammate Curtis Samuel dropped over 3 seconds and 15 places in the preliminaries to earn himself a spot "with the big boys."  Under the CBC spotlight Samuel went out in a blazing 57.27 and raced to a 7th place finish in 2:03.53 ranking him 7th in the country and the second fastest 17 year old male in the country.  This time will make him eligible for Ontario Carding as well as continued funding in the Quest For Gold program.  Samuel also placed 17th in the 400 freestyle.  19 year old OAK varsity swimmer Cameron Cummings also got his moment in the spotlight making the B final (top 16)  in the 400 Individual Medley finishing in a time of 4:34.37 and placing 13th. Cummings is currently attending the University of Toronto and came in to the Trials with a silver medal performance at the Canadian University Championships in the 400 IM.  UofT Varsity and OAK Club teammate Kate Plyley used the Trials in Montreal as her final swimming performances and an end to a swimming career that spanned over 15 years with Oakville Aquatic Club and full 5 year experience with the University of Toronto.  Plyley can be proud of numerous national age group records, podium performances at the provincial and national level as well as Ontario University Team Champion for four years straight.

While it was an emotional third Olympic Trials for OAK veteran Plyley it was an exciting first for OAK Tera Van Beilen and Marni Oldershaw.  Both had stellar performances with Van Beilen's time of 1:14.59 in the 100 breast ranking her the 7th fastest 15 year old female in the country and 2:40.40 in the 200 breast ranking her 6th in the country.  At 13 Oldershaw was one of the youngest competitors at the Trials.  Her times of 5:06.60 in the 400 IM ranks and 2:23.64 in the 200 IM rank her first in the country as a 13 year old in the IM events.  Her top 2 performances in the 100 breast time of 1:16.28 and 100 back time of 1:08.68 establish her as one of the highest performing age group swimmers in the country.

OAK swims in the Open!

Here is a link to a story on the Swim Ontario site about the Provincial Open Water Championships held in Brampton this year.

3 summer team competitions with excellent results: Nat'ls (2nd), Prov'ls (2nd) and regionals (1st).

Canadian Age Group Championships

Ontario Junior LC Championships

Central Ontario Region Championships

Recent Successes!

Here are the latest Oakville Beaver articles about competitions where OAK had great results:

Etobicoke Pentathalon

Jr. Provincials

Mega City

Paul Bergen and Guelph Dash for Cash

Harvest and Autumn Meets

Nothers Invitational & Bell Grand Prix

Brad Townsend

Further Success for Zack

Here is an Oakville Beaver article featuring our club, regarding Zack Chetrat's successes in Los Angeles at the North American Cup.

Zack was on Team Canada for this meet and he placed 1st in 200 fly with a Club record (2.04.35s) (and 2 other club records in 100 fly (3rd, 56.79s) and 200 free (5th, 1:56.29s) in the 17&18 Age Group.

Here is a further news story from the Swim Ontario site.