After winning the Ontario University Championships at Laurentian University during the weekend of February 1, the Varsity Blues men’s and women’s swim teams geared up for the Canadian University Championships at the University of British Columbia the weekend of February 22. Failing to meet expectations, the men’s team finished sixth, while the women finished fourth. The University of British Columbia won both the men’s and women’s championships.

Going into the event, head coach Byron MacDonald warned that despite both teams’ success at the Ontario Championships at the provincial level, a win at the national level was probably beyond reach. The Ontario Championships are designed for swim teams that possess depth, because the top 15 finishes all provide points towards the final team score. Thus, having a first place finisher at the provincial championships is not necessarily as helpful as having multiple top-15 finishers.

Contrarily, at the national level, “we like to think of it as only the medalists contributing to the team score,” confesses MacDonald. “The reason that the men were able to win so handily at the provincial championships is because they have a tremendous amount of depth in that the 14th guy still scores. But at the CIS championships, a great many of those will not score points. So at the CIS, the men will be very hard pressed to finish top three, because they don’t have the top-end power that the women have.”

The sixth place finish for the men’s team was a slight disappointment to MacDonald, who had hoped the men would finish in the top five. Nevertheless, it was the women’s side that really fell below expectations. The women’s team has that top-end power that MacDonald asserts is so important at the CIS championships, with four international veterans on the team. Jen Button is a former Olympian, Liz Warden is a Swimming World Cup and Commonwealth Games medallist, Iris Elliot medalled in last year’s Canada Games and Julie Gravelle is another World Cup medallist.

Liz Warden did come out strong, winning the Female Swimmer of the Meet award. She took home three gold, three bronze and a silver medal. Jen Button also performed superbly, winning three gold medals and breaking her own CIS record in the 100m butterfly event. However, the women were unable to perform at the level MacDonald expected, finishing in fourth place in the final team standings.

Nevertheless, the future of Varsity swimming is bright, as much of this year’s team is composed of rookie swimmers. Not many swimmers will be leaving next year, so MacDonald should have a lot to work with in next year’s university circuit.