Canyons Aquatic Club recently hosted over 700 young swimmers at the Southern California Swimming June Age Group Championships, held at the Santa Clarita Aquatic Center June 16-19. Teams and their coaches and families traveled from as far away as Kauai, HI to visit Santa Clarita and compete at the regional championship over four days of preliminaries and finals, with the youngest 12 & Under swimmers having their own mid-day championship sessions each day.

Canyons Aquatic Club had over 50 athletes competing, and swam to a strong 2nd Place team finish. Brendan Keating (15), Dustin Saguros (16), and Emma Hussein (13) obtained a USA Swimming Futures qualification time in the 50M Free, 200M Breaststroke and 100M Breaststroke respectively, while Bailey Nickols (14 – 50M Free, 100M Free), Tori Yamamura (15 – 200M Fly, 100M Free), Chelsea Dela Calzada (17 – 100M Free), Bethany Burga (15 – 400M Free, 100M Back) and Patrick Grant (16 – 100M Fly, 800M Free) obtained Speedo Sectionals qualification times in their above listed events. Canyons also had several swimmers finish in the Top 3 of individual point earners for the meet – Jace Lloyd, 13, came in 3rd place on the Boys side, while Bailey Nickols, 14, and Caitlin Brown, 16, finished 2nd and 3rd respectively on the Girls side.

“I’m happy that we performed so well being as tired as we are at this phase in the season,” said Canyons head coach Kyle Hastings. “Canyons has always been a place where people come to swim fast. Doing it in our home pool is an added bonus.”

Additionally, the meet was the first Championship meet hosted at the Santa Clarita Aquatic Center since its recent remodeling that included a new concrete deck, re-plastered pool shells, and numerous other facility upgrades. Canyons has previously hosted numerous Speedo Sectionals and USA Swimming Futures Championships at the facility.

“The Santa Clarita Aquatic Center is one of the premier locations in Southern California to host swim meets such as this, and we have successfully worked with Canyons Aquatic Club to co-host these types of prestigious swim competitions for the past 19 years,” said Doug Botton, recreation administrator.

Canyons Aquatic Club has been training swimmers in the Santa Clarita Valley for 45 years. While coaching athletes from novice to Olympian, the team treats every athlete with the same belief – that every swimmer is a winner. Canyons looks forward to bringing more exciting championship swimming to the Santa Clarita Valley as they plan to continue to partner with the city of Santa Clarita in hosting future top-level swim meets. ‘

For more information or if you’d like to join the team, please visit www.canyons.org.

Canyons 13 and older JAGS Swimmers.

Canyons 12 & Under JAGS Swimmers with Head Age Group Coach Marco Bellardi.

Canyons Boys 13-14 400 Free Relay Team (left to right) Elzat Parhat, Deiter Ignacio, Goku Hernandez, and Jace Lloyd celebrate their bronze medal with head JO3 coach Tim Lim.

Canyons Boys 13-14 200 Free Relay Team (left to right) Deiter Ignacio, Elzat Parhat, Jace Lloyd and Goku Hernandez celebrate their silver medal.

Swimmers dive in to start the Men’s 1500 Freestyle race.

Swimmers take their marks before diving in to start the Men’s 1500 Freesytle race

Canyons swimmer Colson Lloyd dives in to start the Men’s 200 Backstroke race.

Swimmers take their marks before diving in to start the Men’s 200 Backstroke race