The Candy Cane Invitational Swim Meet

The 2024 Candy Cane Invitational was a resounding success for the Highlanders, with many swimmers qualifying for finals, setting personal bests, and bringing home medals. The meet, which took place in Truro from December 13-15 at the Wilsons Aquatic Centre (Mr. David Wilson ‘47), welcomed swim teams from across Nova Scotia, including several universities. This annual early-season highlight also marked the first "shave" meet of the year, after more than three months of training. Swimmers shaved their legs, arms, and torsos to improve their times in the water.

This year, we brought double the number of swimmers compared to 2023 and saw a significant improvement in our finals presence, going from 13 swims in finals last year to 19 this year.

Our female swimmers were led by Emery Endres '28, who earned personal bests in all her events. In 2023, Emery was a finalist in three events but did not place on the podium. This year, she competed in five finals, earning three medals. Emery won bronze in the 100m freestyle, bronze in her 800m freestyle, and silver in the 100m backstroke, finished fourth in her 200m backstroke, and fifth in her 50m backstroke. Lillian Blois '27 had a great meet, improving her time in the 200m breaststroke during both the preliminary round and finals. She also set a personal best in the 50m freestyle and swam in the finals of the 50m breaststroke. Rookie Laura Napier-Whale '30 competed in six events, achieving personal bests in all of them, with the most significant improvement coming in her 100m breaststroke. It's worth noting that Laura, despite swimming during senior sport time, also finds time to compete on our junior soccer, cross-country, and basketball teams.

On the boys' side, Harvey Hadley '27 had his best Candy Cane meet performance, earning personal bests in 10 of his 11 swims across six events (five of which had preliminary rounds and finals). He took home gold in the 50m backstroke and 200m butterfly, silver in the 400m freestyle and 800m freestyle, and placed just off the podium in fourth in the 200m backstroke and 100m freestyle. Rowan Francis '27, despite being at the bottom of his age category, swam in the finals of both the 100m and 50m backstroke, earning personal bests in these events and also improving in his 100m freestyle and 50m butterfly. Michael Denysenko '25 had an excellent meet, earning second swims in the 100m freestyle and 100m breaststroke, setting personal bests in both. Hyatt Endres '28 also had a fantastic meet, improving his times in the 50m backstroke, 200m breaststroke, 50m freestyle, and 100m freestyle. Ewan Shaw '30, who set a new 11-year-old team record in the 50m freestyle at the Acadia Nova Tech meet two weeks ago, qualified for the Candy Cane Invitational. Over the weekend, Ewan improved his 100m freestyle by a remarkable 18 seconds and competed in the 50m breaststroke and 50m butterfly for the first time.

We would like to extend a special thank you to several volunteers: Ms. Shelley Skedden (Ellie Blois '24, Lillian '27) for her consistent dedication and for providing treat bags for all our Highlanders, Ms. Taryn Francis (Rowan '27) for the wonderful toques, Ms. Shari Hadley (Harvey '27) for her fair stroke and turn officiating, and Ms. Vanessa Wade for volunteering as a timer at Saturday night finals. Our swimmers felt incredibly supported thanks to these efforts.

While hard work and dedication don’t guarantee success, they certainly help create it. Our Highlanders will continue to train hard until December 24, after which they will take a well-deserved break before diving back into laps in the New Year.