March Break at the AAA Winter Championships

While the rest of our school was heading off to exciting destinations across Europe and beyond, our dedicated Highlanders swim team was breathing in the chlorine at the Dalhousie pool and swimming to the point of exhaustion. The Nova Scotia AAA Winter Championships were held March 6–9, with every major team in the province in attendance.

Lillian Blois '27 led the way on the girls’ side with 36 points. She achieved personal bests in both the 100m and 50m freestyle, but it was her performance in the three breaststroke events that earned her all of her points. Luck seemed to be on her side, as she placed seventh in the 50m, 100m, and the endurance-testing 200m breaststroke – truly a lucky 777!

Emery Endres '28 had a standout meet as well, earning personal bests in all seven of her events. She placed seventh in both the 50m and 100m backstroke and broke the streak by placing fifth in the 50m backstroke. Even more impressively, Emery achieved East Coast qualifying times in all her events – an incredible feat, especially considering she has just aged up into a tougher age category (15 and over).

Harvey Hadley '27 had an outstanding meet, becoming provincial champion in the 400m freestyle with a dominant win by over four seconds – also a personal best by the same margin. His 200m freestyle was one of the most thrilling races of the competition, with just 0.04 seconds separating first and second place. Though Harvey took silver, both swimmers posted the top two times of the entire meet when measured against world record standards. Harvey’s 400m freestyle was the third-fastest overall on that same scale. He also earned bronze in the 50m freestyle – an off event for him – dropping nearly a full second from his previous best in this 24-second sprint.

Michael Denysenko '25 also had a great meet, notching major personal bests in four of his six events. He qualified for finals in the 400m freestyle, slashing more than 11 seconds off of his previous time. He followed that with a nearly five-second drop in the 200m freestyle and another quarter-second improvement in the 50m freestyle.

Emery and Harvey will be representing our school at the East Coast Championships in Halifax, March 27–30. You can tune in to watch them compete against top swimmers from across the Atlantic provinces here.