Six swimmers left Slave Lake 10 days ago filled with Alberta Summer Games hopes and dreams. Days later all returned home with memories they’ll cherish for a lifetime, and two with gold medals they’ll never forget winning.
For 14-year-olds Denise Potvin and Caylnn Maunder, the gold medals signify a dream come true. But they also represent an experience quite unlike either has enjoyed in the past. And for the swimmers it was as much about friendships as it was about winning the new medals around their necks.
The Games were by far the most exciting provincial experience either has taken part in, they agreed, because “it gave us a chance to get to know other swimmers that we only knew from seeing at swim meets in the past,” said Maunder. At the Games’ swimming event that was hosted in High River, the Slave Lake swimmers – part of the Sharks swim club – were part of the Zone 8 swim team that included participants from High Level to Grande Prairie and Slave Lake. In other words, their teammates were swimmers they’ve been competing against in regional competitions every summer for several years. But for the Summer Games they became Zone 8 teammates, all traveling on the same chartered bus from their respective home communities to competitions in the co-host community of High River. Friendships that were forged along the way will last a lifetime for some.
And Zone 8 swimmers who also included Sharks Courtney Schmode, Rudi Leishman, Dylan MacIntyre and Colin Kazakoff had every right to be proud of their accomplishments said Coach Lenny Richer, because “of Zone 8’s 22 medals at the Games, 14 came out of the pool.”
Potvin captured gold in the Girls 14 and Under 50 metre freestyle by shaving .18 seconds off her second-place time going into the meet and completing the two laps on just 30.48 seconds.
The Zone 8 Girls 14 and Under team that included both Potvin and Maunder also captured gold in the 200 metre Freestyle Relay finishing the race in 2:03.15, just three-tenths of a second ahead of their Zone 3 competitors.
Other Zone 8 medal winners included Shelby Robinson and Mandi Luken who were members of the relay team that captured gold in the 200m Freestyle relay.
Individual medals for Zone 8 participants went to Maggie Sisson who won bronze in the Girls 15 and Over 50m Freestyle event; Shelby Robinson who won gold in Girls 14 and Under 200m Individual Medley, silver in the 100m Breaststroke and the 50m Butterfly; Mandi Luken won bronze in the Girls 14 and Under 100m Freestyle; Connor Nychka who won gold in the Boys’ 15 and Over 50m Freestyle and silver in the 100m Freestyle; Courtney Willis who took gold in the Girls 14 and Under 50m Backstroke; Sabrina Luken who won gold in the Girls’ 15 and over 100m Backstroke and bronze in the 50m Backstroke for the same division.
Also at the High River meet Zone 8’s Special Olympics swimmer Leroy Laboucan won gold in the Boys 15 and Over 50m Freestyle, silver in the 100m Backstroke and 100m Freestyle and in the same division, Adrienne Woodcock won broze, 100m backstroke.

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