Thomas Leung became the first member of the Carleton Raven’s varsity swim team to represent the Ravens at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) Swimming Championships in over 10 years this weekend at Laval University.
His two main events were the 50-metre and 100-metre freestyle. Leung had broken the Carleton record for 50-metre freestyle earlier this year at the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Championships and broke the 100-metre record this weekend at CIS. The last time these records were broken was in 1988. Out of the four events he raced, three were his personal best.
Leung is a first-year student at Carleton, and joined the Ravens swim team in late December. Before that, he hadn’t swam competitively in three years.
“Breaking those two school records definitely caught me by surprise because I was so focused on qualifying for CIS that the records didn’t even cross my mind,” he said. “But it’s pretty rewarding to know I was able to break two of the school’s long-standing records.”
Leung also said he did a lot of sprint work and high intensity training to prepare for CIS.
“Getting up at 5 a.m. every morning was tough, but it had to be done if I wanted to generate results,” he said. “I also prepared myself mentally prior to the meet, visualizing races in my head. I think that also helps a lot.”
This swim team has seen a significant improvement in their results compared to previous seasons.
“We went from having one person make a final at OUA’s to having nine people this year. And we haven’t had a swimmer qualify for CIS in over 10 years,” said Brian Hill, head coach of the Carleton Ravens swim team. “Relative to the past years, this year has seen dramatic improvement.”
According to Hill, qualifying for CIS in swimming means you’re ranked in the top 20 to 30 swimmers in the entire country.
“To be ranked in the top 20 to 30 swimmers in a sport with 50 thousand plus people competing—and to do that off of two months training—is incredible,” Hill said.
Another noteworthy swimmer on the team is Melinda Hubert, who missed the qualifications for CIS in 200-metre butterfly by 0.08 of a second.
“She had a spectacular season as well—she broke five Carleton records,” Hill said.
The team has been training hard all season, which is now over. They train about seven times a week, and additional strength and conditioning work outside of that.
“I have fairly high expectations for them and for the most part, they are living up to them,” Hill said.
Leung is now busy training for the Olympic trials in Toronto in early April, where he has qualified for the 50-metre freestyle.
“Olympic trials is huge for me. I have never been to a meet at this level, so there’s a lot to prepare for. Training in the next month will consist of fixing things I need to improve on in the water,” Leung said. “It’s also right before the start of exams, so I have to make sure I stay on top of school work and can focus entirely on swimming that weekend.”
