TORONTO – The last day of pool swimming for the Canadian Swimming Championships made sure to keep up with four more record-breaking performances while UCSC took home the championship banner.
Starting things off were the men in the 50-metre backstroke para multi-class. The duo of Tyson Jacob from Les Loutres and Sebastian Massabie from the Pacific Sea Wolves dove into the morning heats, breaking their national records in the S5 and S4 categories, respectively.
“It was amazing. I wasn’t expecting the record in the morning,” said Jacob.
Both swimmers returned for more and repeated the feat in the finals session.
“I told my coach I didn’t go all out and then I surprised myself tonight. I am very proud of myself” added Jacob.
Jacob lowered his mark to 46.77, while Massabie brought his record down to 52.37.
It was one more medal for Ranumi Eashwarage from the University of Calgary Swim Club (UCSC). The fourteen-year-old grabbed her tenth medal of the competition and finished with five gold medals, two silver, and three bronze.
“I am really happy with how I have swam at this meet. I honestly just wanted to come here and try my best,” said Eashwarage. “I think 100 freestyle was my best race and where I dropped a lot of time.”
Eashwarage claimed three national titles in the women’s 13-14 year-old category: the women’s 50-metre butterfly, the 100-metre freestyle, and the 100-metre butterfly.
Eashwarage’s coach Dave Macdonald, Head Age Group Coach at UCSC, complimented her training and reflected on her six-day competition.
“She really has a desire get better at the little things,” said Macdonald.
“She’s become more well rounded and we have tried to just keep it simple and go one race at a time” added Macdonald when asked how Easwarage handled an eleven-event schedule this week.
Eashwarage’s success is a prime example of UCSC’s utter dominance over the years at the Canadian Swimming Championships.
Macdonald continued by praising the swimmers for their continued success.
“We have a really good culture of kids who want to get better The group itself works really hard and really consistent with their work,” said Macdonald. “We have a great coaching staff right from the ten-and-under group who first develop the swimmers coming through. Culturally, we have some great leaders and the swimmers really led us through this meet”.
Helping to secure the overall team banner for UCSC was the men’s 16-and-over 4 x 100-metre medley relay of Aiden Norman, Laon Kim, Nicholas Duncan, and Paul Dardis.
It was my last race as an age group swimmer with the club so I really tried to put my best race together,” said Norman.
Kim was truthful when asked about the tough competition in these older men’s age categories.
“I am still getting used to racing these older boys,” said Kim.
Duncan emphasized his teammates and the support they all have for each other.
“It is always a team effort. We push ourselves in practice and cheer each other on at the meets,” said Duncan.
Duncan reiterated Norman’s comments as many of the four will age up and some may move away to train while at University elsewhere.
Dardis, who anchored the relay, added that the medals are still memorable to the group.
“We always try to do our best and that’s always the goal. It’s always nice to get that gold medal even when we think we are going to win”.
A final successful day in the pool from UCSC secured the win even with the Tuesday open water races still left to swim.
The University of Calgary Swim Club took home two of the four combined awards winning the Women’s Team Championship banner, and the Combined Team Championship banner. Le Club Aquatique Montréal took home the Men’s Team Championship banner while Etobicoke Swimming took home the Canadian Junior Team Banner.
Below is the complete list of national champions from Day 6 and the championship award winners.
DAY 6 and DAY 7 NATIONAL CHAMPIONS – JULY 29th & 30th
Women
50 backstroke (Para multiclass): Jordan Tucker, Royal City Aquatics, 1:02.45
100 backstroke (Para multiclass): Mary Jibb, Muskoka Aquatic Club, 1:14.36
50 backstroke (13-14): Ève Labrie, Neptune Natation, 29.82
50 backstroke (15-17): Delia Llyod, Etobicoke Swimming, 28.37
50 backstroke (18+): Ashley McMillan, Go Kingfish, 28.88
200 freestyle (13-14): Mila Chernenkoff, Pacific Coast Swimming, 2:06.18
200 freestyle (15-17): Sylvia Statkevicius, Etobicoke Swimming, 2:00.31
200 freestyle (18+): Tori Meklensek, Dorval Swim Club, 2:01.25
200 breaststroke (13-14): Maelle Sanborn, Pacific Coast Swimming, 2:35.86
200 breaststroke (15-17): Kamila Blanchard Pointe-Claire Swim Club, 2:31.82
200 breaststroke (18+): Alexanne Lepage, University of Calgary Swim Club, 2:26.95
1.5km freestyle Open Water (13-14): Elleigh Wise, Cascade Swim Club, 19:25.00
3km freestyle Open Water (15-17): Laila Oravsky: Barrie Trojan Swim Club, 37:51.80
Men
50 backstroke (Para multiclass): Sebastian Massabie, Pacific Sea Wolves, 52.37
100 backstroke (Para multiclass): Reid Maxwell, Edmonton Keyano Swim Club, 1:09.67
50 backstroke (14-15): Gavin Schinkelshoek, Windsor Aquatic Club, 27.24
50 backstroke (16-18): Aiden Norman, University of Calgary Swim Club, 25.94
50 backstroke (19+): Loic Courville Fortin, Club aquatique Montreal, 26.08
200 freestyle (14-15): Levi Hildebrand, Calgary Patriots, 1:56.90
200 freestyle (16-18): Jordi Vilchez, Barrie Trojan Swim Club, 1:50.25
200 freestyle (19+): Cole Pratt, Cascade Swim Club, 1:50.51
200 breaststroke (14-15): Benjamin Cescon, CREST Swimming, 2:21.01
200 breaststroke (16-18): Oliver Dawson, Golden Prairie Piranhas, 2:15.73
200 breaststroke (19+): Brayden Taivassalo, Markham Aquatic Club, 2:13.18
1.5km freestyle Open Water (14-15): Oliver Blanchard, Point-Claire Swim Club, 18:22.00
3km freestyle Open Water (16-18): Olivier Risk, ROC Swimming, 34:22.10
Relays
Women’s 4 x 100 medley relay (13-14): Etobicoke Swimming 2, 4:26.14
Women’s 4 x 100 medley relay (15+): University of Calgary Swim Club 1, 4:06.13
Men’s 4 x 100 medley relay (14-15): Etobicoke Swimming 2, 4:01.01
Men’s 4 x 100 medley relay (16+): University of Calgary Swim Club 1, 3:44.92
CHAMPIONSHIP AWARDS
Women
Canadian Female High Point Aggregate (13-14): Ranumi Eashwarage, University of Calgary Swim Club
Canadian Female High Point Aggregate (15-17): Delia Lloyd, Etobicoke Swimming
Canadian Female High Point Aggregate (18+): Alexanne Lepage, University of Calgary Swim Club
Canadian Para Female Top Swim of the meet: Mary Jibb, Muskoka Aquatic Club, 100 freestyle, 1:04.84
Men
Canadian Male High Point Aggregate (14-15): Benjamin Cescon, CREST Swimming
Canadian Male High Point Aggregate (16-18): Jordi Vilchez, Barrie Trojan Swim Club
Canadian Male High Point Aggregate (19+): Raben Dommann, High-Performance Centre – Vancouver
Canadian Para Male Top Swim of the meet: Sebastian Massabie, 50 butterfly, 38.02
Banners
Overall Team Banner: University of Calgary Swim Club – 3,098 points
Women’s Team Championship banner: University of Calgary Swim Club – 1978 points
Men’s Team Championship banner: Club Aquatique Montreal – 1955 points
Junior Team Championship banner: Etobicoke Swimming – 1877 points
The 2024 Canadian Swimming Championships have been funded in part by the Government of Ontario.
Go banana slugs
Sounds like they swam this meet in a pool deeper than 2 feet.
It’s usually best to put the full name of the club in the first paragraph rather than waiting until the 26th paragraph. Maybe that’s not the case if your goal is to get the reader to continue with the article until they can get an answer to the question “What exactly is UCSC?”
In any case, congratulations to the University of Calgary Swim Club.