The Eastern Ontario Swimming Association Regional Short Course Championship had a fitting conclusion Sunday night when Kingston teams swept the podium on the final event of the meet.  Over 500 swimmers had converged on the Base pool to participate in this high caliber event.  In the final race, the 50-meter Breaststroke, Ben Roberts of the Kingston Blue Marlins edged out Andrew Jones of the Sharks for the gold with Alex Bronson of the Sharks taking the Bronze.

KBM's Ben Roberts was featured again in the 200 Freestyle fighting swimmers two years his senior to capture a Bronze.  In the 100 Backstroke he gave a clinic in perfect starts as he leapt out of the blocks and took control of the race much to the dismay of the Silver medallist from the Ravens of Carleton who tried; but could never catch the smooth swimming Roberts. Roberts also captured Silver in the boys 15 and over, 200 Individual Medley.

  Swimmers always challenge themselves to swim a "personal best" and Kingston YMCA Penguin swimmer Jeremy Baird took a whopping 12 seconds off his time in the same demanding 200 I.M.

A hard fought and electrifying 3-way race in the Girls 15 and over 100 Backstoke saw Ernestown's Emma West-Sadler win the Gold medal with Dorelle Hinton of KBM getting the Silver and Rebecca Cronkite of Quinte getting the Bronze. Pamela Ruksys of KBM streaked to a gold medal in a very competitive field in the girls 15 and over,100 Meter Freestyle and then to another Gold in the 200 I.M..  In the same age group in the grueling 800 Freestyle, EBSC swimmers Jessika Craig took Silver and Nicholle Sherwood, Bronze.

In other Sunday finals action Shark swimmer Stephen Potvin battled KBM's Stefan Ruksys from beginning to end in the Boys 13-14, 200 Meter Breaststroke with Ruksys taking the Silver at the wall and Potvin the Bronze.  Potvin also won a Silver in the 50 meter Freestyle and Naaman Sugrue of the Sharks won a Bronze in the boys 13-14, 50 Backstroke.  Simon Massey-Allard of the Sharks took Bronze in the challenging boys 13-14 200 meter Fly.

Samantha Searle of the Sharks won Bronze in the girls 11-12, 100 Fly and another Bronze in the 50 Fly.

 In the marquis relay events, the Kingston Sharks took Bronze in both the boys 13-14, 200 Freestyle and the 200 Medley relay.  KSSC also took Gold in the 15 and over 200 Freestyle Relay with KBM taking Bronze.

In the most exciting relay race of the evening the Kingston Shark 11-12 girls relay team of Courtney Blades, Emmanuelle Delaney, Samantha Searle and Katie Miller shocked their adversaries with a stunning come from behind surge to take the Bronze medal in a very tight race.

In the Boys 13-14, 100 Meter Freestyle, Phillip Arnold of KBM took command of the race and led from start to finish beating the Silver Medalist from Nepean; Ryan Coens of the Ernestown Barracudas came in third.  Coens also took Gold in the 50 Fly.

In a wild race in the Boys 15 and over 100 Meter Freestyle Nathan MacDonald of the Kingston Sharks grabbed a Bronze.

In the Girls 10 and under events, Amanda MacCormack of EBSC was unstoppable taking Gold in each of 100 Freestyle, 100 Backstroke and 200 Individual Medley.  In the girls 11-12, 50 Meter Breaststroke Shark swimmers Shannon Regan and Katie Miller grabbed the Silver and Bronze respectively.  In the girls 11-12, 200 Butterfly, Alison Cronk of KBM captured Bronze.

In the Boys 11-12, 50 Meter Breastroke Ernestown swimmers Jean-Luc Richardson took the Gold and Blair Morgan the Silver.

Three Kingston teams placed in the top ten in the Combined Teams Scores.  Ernestown was fourth with 1430.5 points, KBM next with 1,114 and the Sharks placed seventh with 866.5 points.

In the individual scores, Amanda MacCormack of EBSC was first in the 10 and under girls with 25 points. Pamela Ruksys of KBM was first in the 15 and over girls with 19 points.  Ben Roberts of KBM was second in the boys 15 and over age group with 20 points.

Kingston Shark organizers were complemented on a well-run event and many participants looked forward to returning to Kingston in the future.  EOSA participants and their families spent close to half a million dollars in the local Kingston economy over the three day event.

Of the 21 teams represented by EOSA, local teams from the Kingston area consisted of the Kingston Sharks, the Kingston Blue Marlins, the Kingston Y Penguins and the Ernestown Barracudas.