As sisters, Meghan and Emma Watson are cut from the same cloth.
Their faces are strikingly similar, ringette is their favourite wintertime activity, and they both swim like fish, racing with the Prince George Pisces Swim Club.
Meghan, a Division 6 swimmer in her fifth year with the Pisces, excels in distance events and likes the 100-metre butterfly and 200m individual medley, while Emma is in her element racing backstroke and breaststroke events, competing in the Division 5 age class. Both are competing this week in their first B.C. Summer Swim Association provincial championships in Kamloops. The meet starts Friday and runs through Sunday.
Although Meghan qualified for the B.C. championships in each of her previous four years, this is the first time she will be making the trip to take on her provincial peers.
"I'm kind of nervous because there are so many talented swimmers in the province and that kind of makes me stressed out," she said. "But I think I'm going to take off a time so I'll be motivated."
At the Pisces regional meet two weekends ago at the Aquatic Centre, Meghan won gold the 200 IM, was a silver medalist in 50 and 100 butterfly events and swam to bronze in the 100 backstroke.
"I'm definitely more of an endurance swimmer, I like the longer races," she said.
"My preliminary 200 IM was pretty good, I'd say, and 50 fly was pretty good, too. My best time in the 200 IM is three minutes and I've been trying to break it. It's been my goal all year and I always get three minutes on the dot. This time I was one second off. It's disappointing sometimes but it motivates me to go faster."
Emma, 14, is 16 months younger than Meghan, who turned 16 on Aug. 6. As a third-year Pisces, Emma has been taking advantage of a growth spurt which has her up to five-foot-nine, an inch taller than her older sister.
"She's built for swimming, big hands, big feet - height and length helps," said Pisces head coach Ian Williams. "She got into swimming because her sister was in it and this year especially she's really gotten into it and wanted to get better, so she's working a lot harder. It's a sport where you really have to out in the work to see the results, you can't fake it."
Emma is within a second of her provincial qualifying time (PQT) in the 100m backstroke and is qualified to swim that event at provincials based on her gold-medal finish in that event at the Prince George meet. The PQT is the average time of the top eight swimmers at provincials over the past four years and the fact Emma's time of 1:17 two weekends ago is close to that standard bodes well for her at least making the B-final in the 100 back this weekend in Kamloops. In the Pisces meet she also won bronze in the 200 IM in a personal-best 2:57, five seconds quicker than her previous best.
Meghan showed an interest in swimming at an early age, which convinced her dad Keith to sign her up for the club. Until she joined the Pisces, Emma was into triathlons. But with the demise of the Prince George Triathlon at West Lake in 2017 due to organizational struggles and declining interest, the absence of a triathlon close to Prince George forced her to find another summertime activity.
"I did a lot of triathlon and swimming was my weakest link, so I thought I'd join the swim club to make it better," said Emma.
Like her sister, Meghan is a past winner of the Kids of Steel Triathlon and has several silver medals from that event. When asked who is the better triathlete, the sibling rivalry surfaces.
"Me," said Emma. "I went to B.C. Games for it last summer."
"That's because I didn't try out for it," was Meghan's quick response.
Their 12-year-old brother Colby has just started competing this year with the Pisces club. Athleticism runs in the Watson family and both girls have played ringette for 10 years. Their Prince George Beaut Showz under-16 team won the B provincial championship on home ice at the Kin Centre in March.
"We swim in the winter and last year a lot of of our (ringette) practices were on the same day, so you have to go from one sport to another quickly," said Emma.
The Pisces is sending 23 swimmers to the provincial meet, up from 11 last year.
Pisces swimmers train throughout the year on a two-hour per week schedule and step up their training sessions to three or four times per week to compete at swim meets in the summer months.
Forty Pisces swimmers entered the Cariboo regional meet. The six-club meet also included the Mackenzie Rainbows, Quesnel Sealions, Nechako Valley (Vanderhoof) Otters, Dawson Creek Seals and Fort St. John Stingrays.
Williams, the Cariboo region coach, says the club has shown steady growth over the past two years and the number of Pisces swimmers who competed in regional meets is up 33 per cent over last year.
