Meet Wrap Up: Mel Zajac International Swim Meet (May 16-19)

Hello TEAM,

With the removal of Swimming Canada's, Easterns/Westerns Championships, Coaches looked at the Mel Zajac meet and thought it would serve as a suitable bridge between Man/Sask and the National level meets, as well as a meet where the athletes would gain some valuable high level racing exposure. LASERS sent a TEAM of 8 athletes and 1 coach, out to the beautiful west coast of Canada, to compete from May 16-18th, at the 60th annual "Mel Zajac International Swim Meet", hosted by the University of British Columbia! UBC has a great pool/facility and a record of producing MANY fast athletes and this was a very, very very FAST meet. Lots of International swimmers, including  Olympic medalists have attended this meet in the past and this year was no different - a stellar line up of talent to put ourselves up against (Kylie Masse, Yuri Kisil, Finlay Knox, Blake Tierney just to name a few of the Canadian National TEAM members!). Truly there was value in simply attending this meet to watch, but what an experience to race alongside some of the best in the world!

Each athlete had a significantly smaller program, most racing only 3 events, as the qualifying standards were quite quick. Earning a final was a BIG challenge, even though the meet held A,B,C finals, meaning the top 30 got a second swim, the meet had 70-100 plus athletes in each event, and all athletes were FAST, thus needing a national cut or close to it to earn a spot in finals. No podiums at this meet this time;) maybe next year! This was a late addition to our racing schedule, with athletes coming off our Spring Training camp and a few coming off of a week of limited swimming, however we still swam well - consistently FAST, looked good in the water representing LASERS and we posted 10 best times, including some great relays - possibly 2 relay club records - we are currently verifying that and will update the records accordingly. Overall it was a valuable swim meet to attend and race at, as I believe attending meets like this throughout the season help elevate our own program and the athletes/parents understanding of true high performance.  

UBC by the Numbers:

This was a fun travel meet and an eye opening experience to true 'high performance' swimming. What a great opportunity and one we hope to return to in future years, perhaps with a few more qualifiers!!! Let's close the gap on those qual times TEAM!!!

GO LASERS GO!

#OutTrainThem