SWIMMING ROUNDUP: Waterloo Toronto Guelph Tri Meet
Warriors men open season with win over Guelph
Waterloo's men's and women's swim teams hosted the University of Toronto and Guelph on Sunday at the PAC pool in a dual meet to open the season. Toronto's men came in as the 2-time defending national champions and looked all of it with some excellent swims. The Warriors were able to capture a couple of events and show that this young group will be very competitive by the end of the season.
The team scores showed the women on the short end in both meets losing 57-31 to Toronto and 54-38 to Guelph. The men were able to turn the tables beating Guelph 49-43 while losing to Toronto by the same 57-31 score. Individual winners were Graeme Kemp (Waterloo) winning the 200 back and 200 breast; Jonathan Ramkissoon capturing the 50 breast and Ola Jozwiak taking the last individual event of the day the 200 free. The women's 8 X 50 free relay were also winners in the first event in the pool. The great promise that this season has, with some many rookies on the team, was not realized in one meet but the signs of potential are evident. The competitive atmosphere in the training pool right now is going to push this group throughout the year.
This is a very young team with fifteen 1st year swimmers in the group. They have been working extremely hard in the past couple of weeks to get into the flow of training and school and finding a balance. The couple of weeks off racing prior to the next meet will be a great opportunity to entrench some good skills and prepare for upcoming performances.
In addition to the meets, there was an alumni meet with more than 25 former Warriors making their way back to the pool to race the varsity team. The alumni won the meet, as always, through some excellent race planning and strategic tactical decisions. The social bonds that were formed between alumni and current Warriors at a reception gave them competitors a chance to build and renew friendships. The bond of the Waterloo swimmers is strong and growing with some excellent young leaders having graduated over the past couple of years and some of the old guard willing to commit to showing the current young team the way.
Source: Waterloo Warriors
Varsity Blues open 2014 with wins over Waterloo, Guelph
The University of Toronto Varsity Blues men's and women's swimming teams both defeated the Guelph Gryphons and Waterloo Warriors in tri-meet action on Sunday, September 28 in Waterloo, Ont.
Toronto's two-time CIS defending champion men topped the Warriors 57-31 and the Gryphons 70-18, while the Blues OUA defending champion women defeated Waterloo 57-31 and Guelph 47-40.
"It's always good to get back at it," said Varsity Blues head coach Byron MacDonald. " We have too much power for the other schools, but it's a benefit for all three teams to just get back on the blocks and feel what it's like to race again."
In women's action, the rookies led the way as Rebecca Stellino, Victoria Radounski and Melanie McDonald won the 200 backstroke, 100 freestyle and 200 individual medley (IM), respectively.
"Victoria has really flown under the radar her whole career and I think she will surprise some people this year," said MacDonald.
In addition, Sherry Patel set a new pool record in the 50 breaststroke with a time of 31.02, bettering the previous record of 31.11.
On the men's side, veteran Kent Kikot won both the 100 and 200 freestyle races.
"That was great for Kent because he is showing he is a force to be reckoned with," added Blues assistant coach Linda Kiefer. "Last year he lost out on competing at nationals despite being one of the better freestylers in the province."
Both Edward Liu and Steven Hibberd set new pool records in the 50 backstroke and 50 butterfly events.
Source: Toronto Varsity Blues
