POINTE-CLAIRE, Que. – Rookie of the year honours, first-time individual U SPORTS medallists and a back-to-back champion headlined the final night of the 2024 U SPORTS Championships for the University of Calgary Dinos swimming program.

The Dinos men equalled their team silver-medal performance from the 2023 championships, accumulating 922.5 points over three days of competition, while the women were able to make their way back onto the national podium to claim the team bronze with 872.5 points after missing out last year. It was Toronto who reigned supreme, claiming both the men's and women's team banners.

"I am completely satisfied," Dinos head coach Mike Blondal said, "which doesn't happen very often, but it's pretty cool when it does."

"We put a lot of pressure on ourselves last year and tried to reduce that as much as possible. We just wanted to have a good time and we swam a lot better for it."

Named as the U SPORTS Rookie of the Year, Alexanne Lepage closed out an impressive championship debut where she hauled in four individual medals. After being locked in a three-day battle with Western University's Shona Branton for the breaststroke hardware, Lepage settled for silver in the women's 50 on night three to add to her 100-meter silver and 200-meter gold medals. The swimmer from Vernon, B.C. also notched a definitive win in the 400 individual medley on night one and made major contributions to the women's relay teams, assisting all three to national second-place finishes.  

Two new individual championship medallists emerged for Calgary on the final night of the 2024 U SPORTS Swimming Championships, namely rookie Hayley French and second-year Emily De Jager. 

French made the most of her first Championship A final where she surged to the wall to hold off Iris Tinmouth to claim bronze in the women's 200 butterfly. It was the first time under 2:20 for the first-year Haskayne student, stopping the clock in 2:19.52.

Despite setting a new lifetime best of 9:06.38 in the 800 freestyle at the 2023 meet, De Jager finished just off the podium in fourth place. Now in her redemption era, a strong push through the final 100 meters saw the Calgary swimmer lock in a new personal best of 9:04.92 and hang on for the bronze.

Coming off his performance at the 2024 World Championships, Stephen Calkins waited until the final night of racing to dazzle the crowd with his sprint prowess. The Calgary senior blasted off the wall after 50 meters in the men's 100 freestyle to rocket home and out-touch first year Chris Weeks of Memorial University by six one-hundredths of a second and defend his championship crown in 50.51.

The Dinos added three more medals to cap off the evening with Richie Stokes grabbing silver in the men's 200 backstroke, and the women's and men's 400 medley relays adding silver and bronze, respectively. 

At the conclusion of the weekend, ten fifth-year and graduating Calgary athletes were honoured  at their final U SPORTS Championships - the most since 2020 where the Dinos bid farewell to eight. 

In a new lifetime best, senior Mackenzie Wallich hit the wall first to win the consolation final of the women's 50 breaststroke in 32.83. She later joined fellow graduating teammate Marit Anderson in the women's 200 backstroke to cap off their varsity careers together. Nadine Daoud, Emma Mitchell and Sarah Corson also suited up for the Scarlet & Gold for the last time after completing all five years of their eligibility.

Going out with back-to-back Canada West team championship banners, five men will be leaving the Calgary squad including backstroke specialists Mark McKenzie and Richie Stokes who added two individual medals to the Dinos' haul over the weekend. Other Calgary seniors graduating include freestyle pair Paul McKenzie, who grabbed bronze in the 200 freestyle on night one, and 400 freestyle silver medallist Nathan Versluys. Sprint ace Stephen Calkins will also be making his final departure from the Dinos after competing for the team during the 2018-2019 season and returning in 2022 when he was named Dinos Athlete of the year.

Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic where many championship sports were cancelled, most of the graduating athletes have spent the last six years training with the Calgary squad under coach Blondal.

"I appreciate all the time our seniors have spent with us and what they have given to the team and myself as a coach," Blondal said. "Marit Anderson and Richie Stokes have offered great leadership and direction for the team over the last few years and coming through the pandemic – I am so proud of them for sticking it out."

FINAL TEAM STANDINGS:
MEN
1.    Toronto – 1145
2.    Calgary – 922.5
3.    McGill - 893
4.    UBC – 867.5
5.    Ottawa – 516.5
6.    Western - 357
7.    Alberta - 345
8.    Waterloo - 227
9.    Laval – 215.5
10.    Victoria – 191.5
11.    McMaster - 156
12.    Dalhousie - 129
13.    Lethbridge - 125
14.    Laurier - 93
15.    York - 90
16.    Memoria - 74l
17.    Carleton - 72
18.    Manitoba – 68.5
19.    Sherbrooke - 58
20.    Acadia - 51
21.    UQTR & Montreal - 37
22.    Regina - 28
23.    Mount Allison - 12
24.    UNB – 11

WOMEN
1.    Toronto - 1444
2.    UBC – 1300.5
3.    Calgary – 872.5
4.    McGill – 788.5
5.    Western – 363.5
6.    Victoria – 222.5
7.    McMaster – 211.5
8.    Alberta - 200
9.    Manitoba – 193.5
10.    Waterloo - 166
11.    Dalhousie - 156
12.    Acadia - 135
13.    Lethbridge - 134
14.    Montreal - 125
15.    Guelph - 94
16.    Ottawa - 91
17.    Laval - 90
18.    Sherbrooke - 41
19.    Brock - 36
20.    Regina – 25.5
21.    Mount Allison - 5
22.    Queen's - 2

-UC-