Danny Summers
Suzi Wilkins arrived at Flying Horse Club three years ago to lay the groundwork for a seasonal swimming club.
Today, with the help of some members who have crossed over from other Colorado Springs swim clubs, Flying Horse Aquatics Club is becoming a major player in the area.
“We take kids who don’t know how to swim, or kids who are looking to swim in high school and college, and get them to a more competitive level,” said Wilkins, who is working with two assistants, Katelyn Wilson and Nicholas Wooster. “We want to be there to help them achieve their goals. It all feeds together.”
Flying Horse has about 30 “competitive” swimmers, and another 30 to 40 swimmers involved at a non-competitive level. Mostly comprised of girls, the swimmers range in age from 6 to 16, with about a half dozen in high school. The majority of the team members attend District 38 and District 20 schools.
“We’re a compliment to the high school swim programs,” Wilkins said. “A lot of our eighth graders are swimming in hopes of being included in their high school swim programs, and a lot of our younger swimmers are learning the skills needed to swim at a higher level.”
Flying Horse qualified nine swimmers for this past weekend’s Colorado Swimming Seasonal Club State Championships at Cheyenne Mountain High School, including sophomore Ashlee Chasteen of The Classical Academy.
Other state qualifiers were: Campbell Fair (age 8), Carsen Fair (10), Brianne Heer (10), Zachary Heer (8), Caleb Krainock (11), Jacob Leichner (9), Elise Marks (13) and Tommy Rauchut (8).
Marks is an eighth-grader at Discovery Canyon. Her older sister, Kierstin, swam four years for Pine Creek and was also a seasonal summer swimmer with Gleneagle when it had a program.
“We heard about Flying Horse and decided this was the program we wanted to be involved in,” said Marks’ mother, Paula. “We’ve always been involved with seasonal swim programs. They allow you to get the work in you need and to be competitive.”
Unlike year-round swim programs, seasonal swim programs are designed to have swimmers train and compete at a high level without the heavy commitment.
Flying Horse works out at the club’s outdoor swimming pool five days a week in the mornings. The club competed in six meets this summer as part of the Pikes Peak Swim League, which includes summer teams from Colorado Springs Racquet Club, Rockrimmon Swim Team, Valley Swim Team and Platte Canyon in Bailey. Each swimmer is allowed to enter up to three events, plus any number of relays.
Wilkins is currently planning a fall season that will begin Sept. 1 and run to the end of December.
“We’ll do a lot of dry land training for strength and conditioning, endurance training in the pool and work on technique,” she said.
For more information on the Flying Horse Aquatics Club, call Wilkins, 494-1222.