Swimming is a sport where not all of Canada’s top university star athletes are siphoned away to the U.S. NCAA Division 1. Twelve swimmers out of U Sports schools represented Canada in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, including multi-medallist University of Toronto Varsity Blues-graduate Kylie Masse and relay medallists Katerine Savard out of the University of Montreal Carabines and Rebecca Smith from the Calgary Dinos. Former UBC Thunderbirds star Brent Hayden didn’t reach the podium in his Olympic comeback in Tokyo but he has a previous Summer Games medal.
Olympic silver-medallist Smith is still in varsity and will lead the Dinos into the 2023 U Sports national championships running today through Saturday at Saanich Commonwealth Place. The qualifying preliminaries are at 10 a.m. with finals at 6 p.m. each day. The races will be streamed live on CBC Gem.
The Toronto Blues are the defending women’s team champions, ending the UBC Thunderbirds’ pool party and four-year title run in 2022, while the UBC men are after their sixth consecutive national title.
The University of Victoria Vikes placed sixth last year in both women’s and men’s team. Hometown-product Sophie Tarrant of UVic won silver last year at the U Sports nationals in the women’s 200-metre breakstroke and broke the Vikes records in the 50- 100- and 200-metre women’s breaststroke events.
Mount Douglas Secondary-graduate Tarrant comes into the U Sports nationals after medalling twice in the recent Canada West conference championships. The other Canada West championship medallists from UVic were Reynolds-grad Lauren Crisp, Erin Epp out of Kelowna and Padric Mckervill from Moncton, N.B., as they lead the 21-member Vikes team as hosts of the U Sports nationals this week.
VARSITY NOTES: The UVic Vikes are hosting another championship this week with Canada West conference curling taking place Friday through Sunday at the Victoria Curling Club. The Alberta Golden Bears are the three-time defending men’s champions, while the Regina Cougars are the defending women’s champions. Reid Zingler will skip the Vikes men’s rink and Kayla Wilson the UVic women’s rink.
