Burnaby's Stefan Milosevic made a statement at the Canadian summer senior nationals swim meet in Pointe Claire, Que. last week.
The 17-year-old Hyack club swimmer opened the four-day competition with a thrilling firstplace win in the men's 200-metre freestyle final.
Milosevic's time of 1:51.18 was just under a second away from Brian Johns' 2000 provincial record of 1:50.34.
The following day in the preliminary heats, the Cariboo Hill
Secondary student set a new provincial boys' 15/17 record, bettering former world champion Brent Hayden's age-group mark with a 51.41 time in the 100m free en route to a silver-medal finish in the final.
"It was a pretty exciting 200, with four guys coming in all within four-tenths of a second, and Stefan got his hand on the wall first," said Hyack head coach Mark Bottrill. "It's been the mid-1990s since the last time something like that has happened. "For a club like the Hyacks to get a medal at the seniors for a male age-class swimmer, it's pretty amazing."
Milosevic outtouched 23-yearold University of Calgary swimmer David Woodman for the gold medal in the sprint to the finish.
In the 100m free, Milosevic was just one-tenth of a second behind Oakville's Bryce Kwiechien-Delaney.
Later in the day, Milosevic also made the final in the men's 400m individual medley. He also placed eighth in the men's 50m free on the final day of competition.
Milosevic placed in a tie for fifth place in the overall men's high point aggregate standings.
Two other B.C. swimmers posted a win on the first day of competition. Heather MacLean
took the women's 200m free in 2:01.13, while 15-year-old Emily Overholt took the national title in the women's 200m butterfly in a time of 2:13.76.
For Milosevic and Overholt, their wins secured each of them a spot on Canada's world junior championships team, which will be held in Dubai in late August.
Simon Fraser Aquatic club swimmers also garnered a firstand second-place medal at the summer nationals.
David Hibberd won the men's 50m free in a time of 23.19, while clubmate Andrew Poznikoff was
runner-up in the men's 50m breaststroke. Poznikoff was also seventh in the 200m breast.
Dimitar Ivanov had three strong swims for SFA. The 20-year-old Burnaby Mountain swimmer was sixth in the men's 200m backstroke, while earning a spot in the B final of both the 50 and 100m back.
Nicole Cossey had a 10th-place finish in the women's 50m free final for SFA. She was also 16th in the 100m free.
