After capturing both the men's and women's Canada West championships back in November, the UBC swim team will travel to the Université Laval to take on the 2016 Speedo CIS Swimming Championships.
Other contenders that will be present at the upcoming championships include the OUA’s University of Toronto Varsity Blues, the RESQ’s University of Montreal Carabins, the AUS’s Dalhousie University Tigers and the hosts, the Laval Rouge et Or. Toronto, Montreal and Laval are all returning participants.
Steve Price, UBC's head coach, expects the weekend to be a competitive one.
“The quality of swimming in CIS has certainly gotten better. We expect to have a battle on our hands,” said Price.
This upcoming weekend will be a chance for both the men’s and the women’s teams to continue with their winning ways. As the women’s team seeks to clinch its fifth consecutive national title, the men’s team will be aiming for its second. The women’s team has currently won 20 national titles and the men’s team has 14.
While both teams are no strangers to national championships, Price said that his swimmers are not taking anything for granted.
“We never expect to win it. We always got to treat ourselves as the underdog and see what we can do. We’re experienced at how to pull those championships, but at the end of the day, we got to get it done at the meet itself,” said Price.
Unlike in previous years, both the men’s and the women’s teams have had to compete shorthanded this year due to swimmers training for this summer’s Olympic games. These include Coleman Allen — three time Canada West MVP — and Yuri Kisil, the men’s rookie of the year and Sprinter’s Cup recipient at the last championship.
“Our teams are not very big this year. You can carry a roster size of 18 men and 18 women. Right now, we have 13 men and 11 women,” said Price. “Every swimmer and swim will be important. We can’t do it just on the stars, so everybody has to step up on the team.”
Still, Price said that having already experienced this situation at the Canada West championship and come out on top, he is confident that the shortage of swimmers on his teams will not be an issue this weekend.
“We got the job done based on our depth with the few swimmers that we have and the quality performances rather than just on the stars,” said Price.
The swim meet will be taking place this Friday and Saturday at the Université of Laval.