The top university swimmers in western Canada will dive into the 2019 Canada West Swimming Championships this weekend, with the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns playing host.
The Horns are joined by the University of Alberta Golden Bears and Pandas, the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds, the University of Calgary Dinos, the University of Manitoba Bisons, the University of Regina Cougars, the Thompson Rivers University Wolfpack and the University of Victoria Vikes.
“It’s great to host,” said Pronghorns head coach Peter Schori. “We only get to host once out of every five years… some athletes never get to swim at home championship — some get one chance — so that’s pretty cool.”
For the Pronghorns athletes, the opportunity to hit the podium at home makes the meet extra special.
“It’s super exciting to see everyone here getting ready and the fact that we only get to do this once every five years at our own pool is really exciting,” said third-year student athlete Adrienne Foscolos.
“All the other teams at the university are rooting for us and they get to come watch, which doesn’t happen very often.”
Optimism heading into day one of the meet on Friday is high for the Horns, who have had one of the strongest starts to the season for the program in a long time.
“It’s been a good start to the year,” said Schori. “It’s been the first time both the men and women have appeared in the top 10 in the national rankings.”
“It’s something our men are fairly used to but it’s nice to see the women getting up on equal footing with them.”
Foscolos, who captains the women, says a strong rookie class this fall has come in and pushed the veteran swimmers; elevating expectations for this weekend.
“The women’s team in general, we haven’t been in the top 10 in U-Sports for a while, but this season — for the first time in a while — we got into it. So I think after this weekend we’re looking for a top 10 spot,” she said.
Stromberg says the positive attitude has been contagious.
“We’ve been training hard, things have been clicking a little bit better than previous years,” he said.
“We’ve got a lot of guys here — and girls, for that matter — that are ready to perform hard.”
Stromberg is one of four Pronghorns who has already qualified for the 2020 U-Sports Swimming Championships in February; he will be joined by Tom Utas, Chris Alexander and Emilia Hesterman, and the Horns hope to see that list grow.
“Our goal is to see how many swimmers we can get qualified for nationals and then see how many best times people swim,” said Schori.
And qualifying is no small feat.
“They have to achieve a time that’s based on 16th place in U-Sports, so it’s pretty fast,” he said. “You think about it, there’s 30 universities in Canada that have swimming. So, if you’re in the top 16 in an individual event, you’re in a pretty classy field.”
The Pronghorns will have their work cut out for them, in a field that includes the powerhouse UBC Thunderbirds; winners of six consecutive men’s Canada West titles and 10 straight by the women.
“I think right now it’s Canada West versus UBC,” laughed Stromberg. “Nobody wants to see them on top anymore and I think if there was a year, this is the year that they’re going to go down.”
The meet will also feature some Tokyo 2020 Olympics hopefuls, including one in particular that stands out to Schori.
“Kelsey Wog from the University of Manitoba,” he said. “Kelsey is one of the best swimmers in the world right now… she’s going to be the class of this meet.”
Friday’s heats begin at 4 p.m. followed by finals from 5:30-7:30 p.m.
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