The Carleton Ravens varsity swim team competed at the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Championships on Feb. 9-11 in Toronto, Ont., with the largest team in over a decade.
Although none of the 23 swimmers met the qualifying time standards necessary to compete at the U SPORTS Championships on Feb. 24-26 in Sherbrooke, Que., Ravens coach Brian Hill said the team performed well overall.
“Close to 90 per cent of our performances were lifetime bests,” Hill said via email. “I’m really proud of the work they did and such great results.”
Several swimmers dropped significant times to improve their personal bests, both in individual events and in the team relays.
Moustafa Kamel had the best performance of the male swimmers on the team, according to Hill.
“His 100-m, 200-m and 400-m freestyle were all huge lifetime bests and showed he’s more than capable of competing with the best swimmers in the OUA,” he said.
“On the women’s side, Erin McRae and Courtney Buchanan both delivered strong performances,” Hill said. “They had 100 per cent lifetime bests in all their events and improved in overall ranking from last year’s OUA Championships.”
McRae, a third-year swimmer on the team, said she swam her best in the 400-m freestyle, dropping nearly 10 seconds.
“I’ve realized that as much as I love sprinting, I’m much better at the distance events, particularly the 400, and I actually enjoy it a lot more than I used to in terms of racing,” she said.
She said the 400-m event is her focus going into next season—working on endurance and pacing to go out and finish the race strong.
But veteran swimmer Mohamed Aly said he didn’t swim his best times because he started focusing more on school compared to last season. He said he isn’t sure if he’ll return to the team next year.
At the OUA Championships last year, Aly qualified for a final in the 50-m freestyle, which he said is, “a good spot to be in.” But at this year’s meet, he didn’t perform nearly as well.
“I got close to but not better than my personal bests, but that was kind of expected for me,” Aly said. “I previously put too much work into swimming and my grades have been starting to suffer for it.”
Last year, Thomas Leung was also the first Carleton swimmer to compete in the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) Championship in over a decade—a major milestone for the swim team.
Aly said he thinks this feat was key to helping the Ravens team grow in numbers this year.
But Hill said Carleton’s swimming program isn’t ready to support national level swimmers.
“Our program is still very much in the building phase and it takes time, resources and a lot of work to develop a team that can compete at this level,” he said. “We’re certainly moving in the right direction, with our team nearly 10 times the size of only three years ago, but there’s more work to be done.
Now that the swimming season is over, Hill said the team will continue to train, focusing on improvements for next year.
“We’re going to continue to build on the strength and improvements from this season,” he said. “I’m confident that the team will continue to grow and that we’ll continue to attract talented swimmers in the seasons to come.”
– Photo is provided.
