Dolphins set two records en route to division win

“Every week there are dual meets where three pools visit three other pools and the last one gets a bye," said Westmount swim coordinator Ross Fraser. "This past weekend in Westmount, we hosted the championship and we finished first overall.

Westmount even set a couple of records last weekend.

“We have some really strong kids throughout, but two of our swimmers smashed some all-time ALPS records," said Fraser. " Zach Glassman broke the all-time 15-plus 50-yards breast stroke by almost a full second at 27.14 seconds, the previous record of 27.80 being set in 1980. In swimming circles, that’s a hell of a big record.

"The other was my son, Kevin Fraser, who broke the all-time 11-12 boys' 50-yards breast stroke with a time of 33.97 seconds, breaking the old record of 34.16, which was set in 1992. These are two pretty old records that went down and is obviously a big source of pride for us. But as special as the individual records are, it’s the team win that’s most impressive.”

There are three different sections in the Association of Lakeshore Pools and there are 22 pools from across the western end of the city that participate, Fraser said.

“This year we swam with Riverside Park (LaSalle), Dixie (Lachine), Valois and Lakeshore (Pointe-Claire), Baie d’Urfe, and Montreal West."

Fraser explained the day’s events.

“All seven pools sent their best two swimmers from each event in each age group. There are 50 events in total, including different distances of freestyle, backstroke, breast stroke, butterfly and free relay,” he said.

“The age groups are under eight, nine-10, 11-12, 13-14, and 15-plus, which usually goes in the 15-22 age range or so.”

With each event scored individually at the meet, the Dolphins went in with a big advantage.

“We were fortunate to be unbeaten through the regular season, so we had a big lead. In the season, you get 50 points for a win and 10 for a loss. Valois was the nearest team to us, and we had 300 points and they had 260,” Fraser said.

“In total we won the meet with 1,406 points. Valois was second with 1,297.”

With those impressive results, Westmount will have close to 50 swimmers at next weekend’s grand finals at Pointe Claire’s Lakeside Pool.

Fraser credited hard work from volunteers and coaches for this year’s success.

“We used to wallow at the bottom of level C and for most of our first nine or 10 years, we didn’t perform very well," he said. "But a few years ago, some great parents got involved and they turned the program around.”

“A bunch of nice families for involved and that really got us going. This is a parent-organized program and we hire and pay our own coaches. Our parents are very involved and this is a reflection of their work. The City is very supportive as well.”