UBC appears to be the top team in the Canada West conference for both men and women with the Canada West championships just over two-weeks away.
Thus far undefeated, the Thunderbirds had an amazing showing at the Odlum Brown Limited Colleges Cup, which served as the last meet at their old aquatic centre.
There, the Thunderbirds set an astounding 14 meet records and defeated their rivals from the University of Alberta as well as a team of standout high-school swimmers led by former UBC assistant coach and Canadian Olympian Brian Johns.
2016 Canadian Olympian Markus Thormeyer had a standout meet and looks to be one of the top competitors in both freestyle and backstroke heading towards his first Canada West Championships.
At the meet he threw down a 1:45.67 200m freestyle in the 25m pool, as well as a 1:56.21 in the 200m backstroke to break two meet records. On the women’s side rookie Ingrid Wilm also broke two records, taking down the 200m backstroke with a 2:09.79 and the 50m backstroke with a 27.78. Multi-time CIS (now U Sports) Champion Coleman Allen won the 100m butterfly with a meet record time of 53.79.
The quick times from Thunderbird swimmers come after they won the Rocky Mountain Cup at the end of October, taking down both the University of Calgary and the University of Toronto, arguably two of the best teams in U Sports.
At that meet the Thunderbirds beat their rivals at Calgary by a wide margin, showing their dominance in the Canada West conference.
The Thunderbirds also managed to defeat the University of Victoria early on in the season at the BC Senior Circuit.
Heading towards Canada West UBC swimmers are ranked first in the conference in the majority of events on the women’s side, while University of Mantioba’s Kelsey Wog looks to rain on their parade. Wog is ranked first in all three breaststroke events as well as the 50 and 100m freestyles where she’s projected to dominate in her first Canada West Championships.
Calgary’s Danica Ludlow and Alberta’s Georgia Kidd are ranked first in the 200m freestyle and 200m butterfly respectively.
On the men’s side they rank first in all events other than the men’s 50m backstroke, where Josh Dow of Calgary holds the fastest time, as well as the 50m breaststroke, 100m breaststroke, and 100m IM where Nick Kostiuk of Alberta is ranked first.
The Canada West Championships will be taking place November 25-26 in Edmonton, Alta., where UBC is favoured to win in both the men’s and women’s events.
Major meets so far
- SFU Vs University of Victoria – Victoria (M), SFU (W)
- University of Toronto vs University of Calgary – Toronto
- BC Senior Circuit – UBC
- Rocky Mountain Cup – UBC
- Odlum Brown Limited Colleges Cup – UBC
Major Upcoming meets
- University of Calgary, University of Alberta Dual meet – November 12
- Canada West Championships – November 25-26
- Colleges Cup – February 3-5
- U Sports Championships – February 23-25