SANDRA M STANWAY
Brooks Bulletin
Reegan Folkerts, a member of the Brooks Barracudas swim team, at the inaugural USA Down Syndrome Swimming and Athletes Without Limits Open National Championship.
Over 100 swimmers representing eight countries participated in the Nov. 7-10 event in Orlando, Florida where 65 records were broken.
Folkerts took second place in the 50m backstroke preliminaries with her personal best time of 52.57 which advanced her to the finals where she finished with a time of 52.26 to finish fourth.
In the 50m free Folkerts shaved off 1.68 seconds from the seed time for a personal best time of 49.95 and in the 50m breast she finished fourth in her division and second place for Canada with a time of 56.67 to earn a silver.
She finished fifth in the 100m back and seventh overall in 50m butterfly.
In the butterfly she shaved off about eight seconds from the seed time swimming her preliminary time of 50.14 and final time of 50.66.
“We’re (parents) pretty proud of her,” said her mother Mary Folkerts.
Having qualified in the finals in her second meet also earned Folkerts a position as a member of the Canadian Down Syndrome Swim Association.
“This team travels. They’ve been to Portugal, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. This was an open and there is a worlds where they have many countries involved.”
The last world event was held in 2022 in Portugal where 163 swimmers and 25 artistic swimmers from 23 countries competed in the 10th world event.
“This is more of a level playing field for those with down syndrome,” Mary said.
