T-Birds sweep banners, awards, at 2025 Canada West Swimming Championships

LETHBRIDGE – When the mud settled on the Canada West Championships, it was the UBC Thunderbirds who reigned supreme. The T-Birds gained each workforce titles for the second yr in a row and claimed each particular person award throughout the three days of competitors contained in the Max Bell Regional Aquatic Centre.
 
Led by standout performances from Kayla Sanchez, who was named the convention’s Female Swimmer of the Year, and first-year star Aiden Kirk, who earned each Male Swimmer of the Year and Rookie of the Year honours, the Thunderbirds as soon as once more confirmed their depth throughout each rosters.

 

“I’m so proud of these athletes. They’ve worked incredibly hard from the very start of the season,” mentioned Thunderbirds head coach Derrick Schoof, who was named each Men’s and Women’s Coach of the Year following the occasion.

“We’ve got great energy, great athletes, and a group that is truly committed to excellence. I’m proud of how hard they’ve been working. They deserve this success.”

 

On the ladies’s facet, the Thunderbirds gained their fourth straight convention crown – and fifteenth title within the final 16 years – with a dominant 1,032 factors. Calgary completed second with 801.5, and Victoria was third with 512.5.

 

Schoof highlighted the balanced effort behind the ladies’s victory.

 

“Lots of great results across the board. Of course, Kayla Sanchez was outstanding, truly world-class swimming, but this is a real team event. For us, it’s about making sure all 18 women step up, and they all did.”

 

UBC’s banner within the males’s competitors is their second in a row, topping the standings with 1,062.5 factors. The T-Birds held off Calgary who completed the meet in second with 892 factors, whereas Victoria was once more third with 492.5.

 

Schoof praised his males’s effort as properly, noting their resilience towards robust competitors from the Dinos and the remainder of the sector.

 

“Calgary always has a strong squad, and we never take them for granted. They came out swinging, and we had to be at our best. I knew going in that we could do it, and the team delivered.”

 

The Thunderbirds earned their first medals of Sunday’s motion within the males’s 200m butterfly, the place Kirk took the highest spot, touching the wall in a time of 1:59.57. Raben Dommann, additionally from UBC, took second with 2:00.58 and Calgary’s Nicholas Duncan earned the bronze medal in 2:01.64.

 

T-Birds star Emma O’Croinin gained the ladies’s 100m freestyle with a time of 54.76. Calgary’s Eliza Housman (55.38) and UBC’s Brooklyn Wiens (56.06) had been the following two to the touch the wall.

 

It was a podium sweep by the blue and gold within the males’s 100m freestyle, led by Yuri Kisil who touched the wall with a 48.26 end. Teammate Jake Gaunt completed simply after in a time of 49.43, adopted by Frank Ho (49.47).

 

Calgary earned the gold medal within the 200m medley on the ladies’s facet, with UBC’s Camryn Stannard (2:16.95) and Jade Lo (2:16.97) ending neck-and-neck with one another to say the opposite two medals.

 

The males’s 200m medley noticed a decent race for the highest spot. It was Jaques Harrison who obtained to the wall first in 1:59.77, pulling forward of Calgary’s Ian Cameron within the final 25 metres. Fellow Dino Nicholas Duncan (2:01.14) took bronze.

 

In the following occasion, UBC’s Bridget Burton accomplished her domination of the backstroke races, ending the 100m in 58.38 seconds. Eloise Allen (58.93) and Piper Mitchell (1:00.46) rounded out the rostrum.

 

Dommann gained the 100m backstroke for the Thunderbirds in 52.25. Calgary’s Thomas McDonald was on the rostrum, ending in 54.06, whereas Ethan Fast claimed the bronze medal with a 54.75 end.

 

After a break for medal ceremonies, Calgary’s Alexanne Lepage took gold within the girls’s 200m breaststroke in 2:25.16 to take the entire breaststroke occasions. UBC’s Amaris Peng was in subsequent at 2:32.05, and Emma Spence took the bronze in 2:32.19.

 

It was a UBC sweep as soon as once more within the males’s 200m breaststroke, spearheaded by Justice Migneault, who clocked in at 2:09.08. Next on the rostrum was Glen Omielan in a time of two:10.62 and incomes bronze in 2:11.08 was Sebastian van de Logt.

 

O’Croinin then broke the Canada West document within the girls’s 400m freestyle with an exhilarating swim to grab gold with a time of 4:12.65. Ruby Kehler (4:18.06) and Emma Spence (4:18.17) adopted behind to safe one more UBC sweep. Kehler would additionally go on to be named the Female Rookie of the Year following the meet.

 

The ultimate particular person occasion of the competitors noticed Kirk and fellow Thunderbird Paul Hebrard go head-to-head for the boys’s 400m freestyle crown, with Kirk ending first in 3:49.14 and Hebrard second with 3:52.81. Calgary’s Aiden Gyorfi completed third in 3:55.03.

 

The evening ended with the ladies’s and males’s 400m medley relay finals. Both UBC groups gained their races by a stable margin, with the boys ending practically three seconds forward of their closest opponents, and the ladies successful by greater than 5 seconds.

 

After three days of unbelievable racing, the Thunderbirds lifted their thirty sixth all-time Canada West championship on the ladies’s facet, and twenty fourth all-time for the boys.

 

Now, the eye will flip in direction of the U SPORTS Championships in March, the place the Thunderbirds will goal to defend their nationwide titles.

 

“We’re always looking for improvement,” added Schoof. “We’ve learned a lot in these first two and a half months. We have quite a number of rookies on the team, so we’re still learning what makes them tick. But we learned a lot this weekend, and I think we can move forward and find new areas to improve and ways for all of these athletes to get faster.”

 

 

TEAM SCORES

Women

UBC – 1,032.50

Calgary – 801.50

Victoria – 512.50

Lethbridge – 321

Manitoba – 193

Regina -145.50

 

Men

UBC – 1,062.50

Calgary – 892

Victoria –492.50

Lethbridge – 271

Manitoba – 166

Regina – 133

 

 

INDIVIDUAL AWARDS

Female Swimmer of the Year Award – Kayla Sanchez, UBC

Male Swimmer of the Year Award – Aiden Kirk, UBC

Female Rookie of the Year Award – Ruby Kehler, UBC

Male Rookie of the Year Award – Aiden Kirk, UBC                      

Coach of the Year Award (Men’s and Women’s) – Derrick Schoof, UBC

Female Student-Athlete Community Service Award – Meadow Liversuch, Lethbridge

Men’s Student-Athlete Community Service Award – Stephen Moore, Calgary

 

 

Female Canada West First Team All-Stars

Kayla Sanchez

Emma O’Croinin

Bridget Burton

Alexanne Lepage

Sela Wist

Jade Lo

Brooklyn Wiens

Emma Spence

Kaitlyn Luu

Eliza Housman

Sarah Haugen

Eloise Allen                          

 

Female Canada West Second Team All-Stars

Hayley French

Camryn Stannard

Amaris Peng

Ruby Kehler

Piper Mitchell

Benya Mattig

 

Male Canada West First Team All-Stars

Aiden Kirk

Jake Gaunt

Justice Migneault

Ethan Hemeon

Frank Ho

Kai Lilienthal

Yuri Kisil

Jacques Harrison

Nicholas Duncan

Paul Hebrard

Raben Dommann

 

Male Canada West Second Team All-Stars

Ian Cameron

Thomas McDonald

Ethan Fast

Glen Omielan

Jake Gaunt

Olivier Risk