Fifth Age Group Development Meet

The fifth Age Group Development Meet was held at Centennial Pool in Halifax on April 26–27. This was a particularly exciting – and challenging – weekend for two of our Highlanders, as it marked the first time Laura Napier-Whale ’30 and Ewan Shaw ’30 raced in a 50-metre pool. With double the length of our home Spafford Pool, the long course format offers fewer chances for rest and makes pacing much more demanding.

Laura delivered all personal bests and had an outstanding swim in her first-ever 400m freestyle, finishing just outside the top 10 – an excellent result at any time, but especially impressive in her debut at this distance and in a 50m pool. She also swam very well in the 100m and 200m freestyle, along with the 200m backstroke and 200m individual medley.

Ewan was at his best in the 100m freestyle, powering his way to a major personal best. He also broke the three-minute barrier in the 200m freestyle – an excellent achievement in his long course debut.

Lillian Blois ’27 was our team’s cheerleader throughout the weekend – always smiling, laughing, and keeping the team’s spirits high. She started each of her races with strength and energy. With a consistent stretch of healthy training weeks, she’ll be ready to push the back half of her breaststroke races to new levels.

Emery Endres ’28 has been building momentum with strong practices since her exceptional performance at the East Coast Championships. That work showed in her 50m, 100m, and 200m backstroke races, where she came just shy of a podium finish.

Julien Gingras ’27 had a breakout meet, earning two Highlanders top 10 performances – one in the 200m breaststroke and the other in the 50m freestyle sprint.

Harvey Hadley ’27 raced a slate of off-events, but his results were anything but casual. He earned four personal bests across five races and claimed three gold medals in the 200m butterfly, 100m butterfly, and 50m breaststroke. He also added a silver in the 100m backstroke – all in events outside of his usual focus.

Our Highlanders will be back in action May 23–24 at Dalhousie University. Until then, they’ll be sharpening skills and building momentum.