After winning the Canada West championships back in November, the UBC swim team came out in second place at the 2016 Speedo CIS Swimming Championships at the Université Laval.
The women’s team scored a total of 749.5 points while the men’s team had 766. Both teams placed second to the Toronto Varsity Blues who scored 800 points for the women and 859 for the men.
Steve Price, UBC's head coach, said that results of this year were not particularly surprising since both of his teams had a shortage of swimmers. UBC only had 11 women and 13 men compared to U of T's full squads. Six of Price’s male swimmers are currently training for the Olympic team.
“It wasn’t totally unexpected with the team size that we had. Our numbers were down a little bit in terms of recruiting this year,” said Price. “Toronto had a full squad and we couldn’t overcome their numbers.”
Despite having to compete shorthanded, the two teams came out with a combined total of 31 medals — 10 gold, six silver and four bronze medals went to the women’s team while the men’s team notched four gold, two silver and five bronze. Erika Seltenreich-Hodgson received the most medals of all UBC swimmers with five gold and two bronze.
Although the final result was not what he wanted, Price was overall impressed with his teams’ performances.
“The fact that we made it competitive … speaks volume about the quality of our swimming,” said Price. “If we weren’t outmatched in numbers, if we had 18 men and 18 women, it would have been close.”
On top of having earned the most medals, Seltenreich-Hodgson also held a CIS record breaker with a time of 2:12.85 in the 200 metre individual medley. Teammates Alex Loginov and Keegan Zanatta also held record breakers for the 50 metre freestyle and 200 metre freestyle respectively.
While the swim team fell slightly short in recruiting this year, Price said that he will have complete squads for his teams by next year.
“We already recruited very well for next year. We’re going to have a full squad and we’ll come back next year and have a go at the championships,” said Price.
With the CIS championship now complete, Price will be setting his sights on the Olympic team, which has an even more challenging task of competing in Rio de Janeiro this summer.
Share this article
