SAINT JOHN, N.B. – The Acadia swimming team bettered last year’s AUS Swimming championship medal haul of 21 with 33 medals this past weekend. The Axemen and Axewomen finished second in their respective gender category and second overall.
“The team came together after an amazing season of commitment to training. The guys team was in tough all weekend and actually held the lead once on Friday and once on Saturday,” said head coach Gary MacDonald.
“We actually outscored Dalhousie in Sunday’s final but Dal’s strength on Day Two kept them ahead. It was an incredible weekend and everyone swam their hearts out,” added MacDonald.
Brett Liem was chosen as the AUS Male Swimmer of the Meet and first-year Acadia swimmer Josh Nowlan was named the Male Rookie of the Meet.
The Women’s team also came up big and easily outscored all other teams for a huge second place finish as well.
“We have a group of 5 swimmers heading to U SPORTS Nationals in 10 days. No new qualifiers this weekend” noted MacDonald.
The Axewomen finished second overall in the women’s division and the Axemen finished a close second to Dalhousie. Acadia finished second in the combined scoring.
Five swimmers will be attending the U SPORTS championship February 22-24 at the University of Toronto including Brett Liem, Alison MacEachern, Jessica Pelletier, Kelsea Vessey and Hannah Doiron.
Medal winners:
Kelsea Vessey – Gold 200m butterfly, Silver 200m freestyle, Silver 100m butterfly, Bronze 800m freestyle
Jessica Pelletier – Gold 100m backstroke, Silver 50m backstroke
Alison MacEachern – Silver 50m butterfly, Bronze 100m butterfly, Bronze 50m freestyle
Benjamin Henger – Silver 50m backstroke, Silver 100m butterfly, Silver 100m backstroke, Bronze 200m individual medley
Hannah Doiron – Bronze 100m breaststroke
Brett Liem – Gold 50m breaststroke, Gold 50m butterfly, Gold 50m freestyle, Silver 100m freestyle
Adam Deutsch – Gold 200m breaststroke, Gold 100m breaststroke, Silver 400m individual medley, Silver 200m individual medley
Chris Johnson – Bronze 100m breaststroke
Isaiah Grambo – Silver 50m butterfly, Bronze 100m butterfly
Patrick Henger – Silver 200m butterfly
Joshua Nowlan – Bronze 1500m freestyle
Relays:
Silver – 400m Women’s freestyle relay
Silver – 400m Men’s freestyle relay
Silver – 800m Women’s freestyle relay
Silver – 800m Men’s freestyle relay
Silver – 400m Men’s medley relay
Silver – 400m Women’s medley relay