Twenty-five of the Collingwood Clippers fastest swimmers made the drive to Sudbury last weekend to participate in the Ontario Division 3 Team Championships.

The meet, which ran from Friday to Sunday, saw a tenacious Collingwood contingent facing some stiff competition from the 27 other Division 3 teams who came from across Ontario to vie for the title and team banner of Ontario Division 3 Team Champs in the Long Course 50-metre pool at Laurentian University.

There were several outstanding swims and individual performances including: a 42-and 112-second drop in the 200 IM and 1500 Free respectively for Sebastian Carrasco; 15-and 29- second time drop in the 100 and 200 Fly respectively from Hanna Christensen; a 14-second drop for Amy Foubert in the 200 Fly; a 13-second drop in the 200 Free for Anneke Froentjes; 13-, 26-and 33-second drops for Nicole Rennie in the 200 Fly, 400 IM and 800 Free respectively; and a 15-second drop in the 200 Fly for Julia Simpson

Swimmers swimming 100% best times included: Malcolm Bourachot, Molly Bouchard, Larkin Casey, Teda Froentjes, Aidan Mitchell, Heidi Ohrling, and Rachel Simpson. Great swims were also seen from Zoe Astill, Alexander Carrasco, Holly Keir Kirsten McFarlane, Corey Mroczkowski, Logan Robitaille and Madison Whitton.

Medal winners included: Lexie Ausrotas, Larkin Casey, Amber Champion, Hanna Christensen, Matthew Christensen, Marian Cooper, Amy Foubert, Sascha Keir and Nicole Rennie.

The hotly contested title for the most exciting Clipper race of the meet saw Sascha Keir, Lexie Ausrotas, Marian Cooper and Amber Champion swim a fantastic 200 Metre Medley relay in the girls 15-and-over age group which saw Amber Champion come from behind on the last leg of the race to secure gold for the team.

The Clippers also took gold in the Girls 13-14 Medley relay, silver in both the 13-14 and 15 and over Girls 200 Free relay, silver in the 11-12 Girls 200 Medley and bronze in both the Boys 11- 12 and Girls 11-12 200 Free Medley.

Sascha Keir achieved an Age Group National time standard for 12-year-old girls in the 200 Backstroke and is closing in on the time required for her to swim the event as a 13-year-old in July at Calgary's Talisman Centre pool. Matthew Christensen and Marian Cooper have already previously qualified to enter the Canadian Age Group National swim meet this summer.

Overall, the Collingwood Clippers finished fourth out of 28 teams, close on the heels of the Orangeville Otters. The Orangeville Otters and Owen Sound Aquatic Club will move up to Division 2 Team Champs next year by virtue of their top-three team finishes.

The Orangeville team has two competition- ready 25-metre pools and Owen Sound is looking forward to the opening of a brand new competition-ready eight-lane 25-metre pool with electronic timing this June.