Cochrane’s spring/summer swim club is gearing up for their first meet of the season in a unique way.

The Piranhas Swim Club held a practice ‘mini-meet’ on Wedneday, June 1 to prepare for their first competition, the Cochrane Piranhas and Didsbury Aqua-Jets Annual Invitational Swim Meet.

The meet already has 308 swimmers registered to participate from 7 clubs, with 1021 individual swims and 109 relay swims planned.

Piranhas Head Coach Breanna Hendricks says having  7-16 year old swimmers train like this is different from previous years.

“Everybody’s going to do a short back short free and a relay today,” she says. “Usually we would be a bit more relaxed, but the board thought of the suggestion to do a mini meet, it was a great idea.”

Hendricks adds holding a mini meet is great to get the club first years' to get used to a competition format.

“It’s a great start for them because they get to get used to how the whistle gets blown, how they have to get up on the block at the right time, how they exit the pool even, and how they practice their touches so they don’t get disqualified.”

She’s confident the team will do well on Saturday, even though it’s just a month into the season.

“I think it should be really good, they’ve been looking really great so far this season.”