A masterful performance at the provincial level.
The Okotoks Masters made swim club history with their first provincial banner, taking home the Swim Alberta Small Team Award while hosting the 2024 Swim Alberta Masters Championships from April 28-29.
“That was big, even our coaches who have been around for quite a number of years between them, they were pretty excited about that,” said Okotoks Masters swimmer Greg Sterenberg. “The reaction when they announced it was pretty spectacular, the reaction from even the experienced guys saying, ‘Wow, this is a new thing.’ And they say it’s the first time the Okotoks Masters have ever won a banner.
“It was a reasonable achievement and one that I think everyone was pretty happy about and pretty proud of.”
Okotoks was the top Small Team, a designation for clubs with less than 15 competitors. Clubs with over 15 swimmers, were classified as a Large Team. The Edmonton Masters took home the banner in their class.
“We were asked by Swim Alberta, after we had done such a good job running the swim meet at the (Alberta) Summer Games to host this year’s masters provincials,” said Carolyn Sterenberg, Okotoks Masters Swim Club president. “Of course, the people at the pool were super excited about it so we agreed to do it.”
Okotoks had 14 competitors at the event: Greg Sterenberg, Chris Hider, Debbie Zelez, Norma Schock, Moira Allen, Megan MacDougall, Tiffany Herrick, Ngan Oikle, Cara Clifford, Louise Dougherty, Hillary Haliburton, Krystof Lindenback, Jacob Spector and Tim Arnholtz.
Points are awarded for top-three finishes with the athletes competing within five-year age group increments.
“The best part of it is we had a lot of swimmers that had never swam in a meet before,” Carolyn said. “They were in that 65-plus age and this was their first meet and they did really well.”
The age spread at the Okotoks event ranged from 20 to 91 with 159 athletes from as far west as Elk Valley, north to Peace River and east to Regina.
Greg Sterenberg is somewhat new to the sport having jumped into swimming following his retirement seven years ago. The journey has taken him to the provincial and national stage.
“The nice thing is just about every time I race, I’m setting a personal best,” he said. “You have to submit a seed time and the nice thing about that is you might not be competitive with the points you’re getting, but at least in the individual race you do, you have a chance of coming first in your heat.
“They really make sure it’s a good experience for both inexperienced swimmers and, of course, there’s pretty good opportunities for the really fast to compete at a pretty high level.”
The Okotoks Masters had 75 volunteers at the meet, teaming up with the Highwood Current youth swim club who assisted greatly to the volunteer and official duties.
“We had two sessions each day and for each one you need about 40 people on deck, doing timing and judging and starting at a sanctioned meet like this,” added Carolyn.
“They don’t as often have (provincials) in these smaller centres so it was a really good event that way because it was a smaller place, but a lot of people were there, a lot of fans came out and it was a really friendly meet with lots of support for everybody.”
The Okotoks Masters swim seven times per week and currently boast a membership of 91 under the direction of experienced coaches Cara Clifford and Sharon Barr.
To find out more about the club, go to okotoksmasters.com.
