VANCOUVER – Just a week after their home opener, the University of Calgary men's and women's swim teams both claimed second place behind the host UBC Thunderbirds over the weekend at the Odlum Brown Colleges Cup.
The annual Colleges Cup meet hosted by UBC attracts several competitors, including all eight teams in the Canada West conference and serves as an exciting preview for the upcoming conference championships, which will be hosted by Calgary later this month.
On the women's side,
Alexanne Lepage continued to clean up for the Dinos. After receiving CW Female Swimmer of the Week honours, the rookie from Kelowna set four new lifetime best times while she racked up 96 points for the Scarlet & Gold.
On night one, Lepage set a new lifetime best of 4:42.43 when she touched five seconds clear of UBC's Emma Spence to win the women's 400 individual medley. She also added a second win and best time of 2:25.93 in the 200 breaststroke, dropping 0.31 seconds from her previous best of 2:26.24 set last weekend at the Dino Invitational.
Lepage also dropped time to win the women's 100 breaststroke in 1:07.93 and shaved off more time from last weekend's Dino Invite in the 200 individual medley where she swam 2:14.46 to record a new lifetime best of 2:13.50 in Vancouver.
Kassua Dreyer was another Dino to make impressive drops over the weekend. The second year from Ross River, Yukon added 70 points for the Dinos women and set three new personal best times in the process.
Dreyer took third place behind Lepage and Spence in the women's 400 IM – with her time of 4:51.09 marking over four seconds faster than her previous best of 4:55.49. In addition, the second year clocked new personal best times in the 200 breaststroke (2:33.55) and set a new lifetime best of 2:19.05 in the preliminaries of the women's 200 IM.
Third-year
Thomas McDonald had a packed weekend schedule where he raced 12 times – recording two new personal bests and scoring 61 points for the men's team.
In addition to his two third-place finishes in the men's 50 and 100 butterfly, McDonald raced to 8th in the 100 freestyle, clocking a new lifetime best of 51.10 – his first time under the 52-second mark, and finished 15th overall in the men's 50 freestyle in a new best time of 23.64.
The men's team had four individual event winners with
Nathan Versluys repeating his win in the 400 freestyle from last weekend, touching in 3:52.45,
Paul McKenzie winning the men's 200 freestyle (1:50.34),
Stephen Calkins taking the top spot in the 100 freestyle (48.20) and
Addison Butler in the 100 individual medley (56.67).
With just over two weeks to go before the 2023 Canada West Swimming Championships, the Dinos will be back in the water for final tune-ups as they prepare to challenge for the team titles at home Nov. 24-26.
TEAM SCORES
MEN
1. UBC - 1075
2. Calgary - 926
3. Alberta - 747
4. Team Swim BC - 654
5. Victoria - 511
6. Lethbridge - 465.5
7. Manitoba - 304.5
8. Regina - 197
9. Thompson Rivers - 36
WOMEN
1. UBC - 1422
2. Calgary - 1015
3. Team Swim BC - 797
4. Alberta - 490
5. Victoria - 487
6. Manitoba - 309
7. Lethbridge - 298
8. Regina - 149
9. Dalhousie - 15
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