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Kitimat swimmers to swim for college teams

Dumas, Cathers and Firmino going for the big time
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Three swimmers from the Kitimat Marlins Swim Club will be flying Kitimat’s flag high when they start swimming with university and college teams next season.

Zachary Dumas, who holds many boys Terrace and Kitimat pool and northwest B.C. regional records, will be at the University of Victoria next season. Dumas will be studying humanities in school and will be near the top of the roster of the UVIC Vikings university team.

The team is picked from swimmers who have or who are the closest to the tough CIAU time standards (the standards to compete at the Canadian University National Championships). Dumas’ personal best race times in the 400 individual medley and 1500 freestyle are within one per cent of the time standard. He will be on the boys aged 18 roster.

Kleanza Cathers, who holds many girls pool records in Terrace and Kitimat, and a few northwest B.C. regional records, accepted a swimming scholarship offered to her from the Barton College Bulldogs Team in Wilson, North Carolina, U.S. Cathers will study nursing in school, and the swim and scholastic scholarships given to her at Barton will pay 90 per cent of her tuition for all four years of her nursing program.

The school swim team competes at the NCAA division 2 level and Kleanza’s swim race times done with the Kitimat Marlins will already place her in medal contention at the Carolina Conference Swim Championships.

Arthur Firmino swam with the Kitimat Marlins through grade 12, reaching the age group national level as a swimmer in breaststroke.

He then retired from swimming and did a bachelors degree in physics at the University of Alberta.

Still with a passion for competitive swimming he decided to start training and racing again this season and has already posted personal best times.

He will be starting a Masters degree in computer science at the University of Victoria and will be fighting to make the roster for the University of Victoria Vikings swim team to join old Kitimat Marlins team-mate Zachary Dumas.