Meet Wrap Up: Mel Zajac JR (Jun 5-7)

Hello TEAM,

The LASERS top athletes headed West to Beautiful British Columbia, specifically Vancouver, to race at the 2026 Mel Zajac Jr Invitational, hosted by the Vancouver Pacific Swim Club and the University of British Columbia. The purpose of this meet was to gain some racing experience and expose the athletes to high level 'open' racing (non age group swimming). This year did not disappoint, as there were multiple Olympian's (Liendo, Condorelli, Kisil, Masse, Sanchez, Tierney) plus multiple USA teams including the USA JR national team, who were absolutely outstanding. Our athletes held their own amongst the deep talent and they did a great job representing LASERS SWIMMING!

Mel Zajac Jr by the numbers:

The facility/pool was the UBC Aquatic Centre and is right on campus. A huge advantage to traveling teams racing here is that you can stay at one of the local hotels/residences right on campus, making it only a 5min walk to the pool, plus, there are many restaurants and shops all within walking distance - very convenient for swimmers, parents and coaches. It is also the home of the UBC ThunderBirds, currently Canada's fastest University swim team (both men's and women's)!

This meet takes place at an interesting time in the LASERS training/racing cycle. Since we tapered and rested into Bridge City or Best of the West Fest (in April), and we needed enough time in our final training block to be effective (so we could peak again at our priority meet in July - Man/Sask), this made Mel Zajac Jr, a meet where we had to train through, giving athletes little rest, and forcing them to race while tired. Our TEAM, even though lacking a taper or solid rest, did a great job racing hard, posting some strong swims and even landed a few BEST TIMES! You may also notice below, the placing of our athletes, this meet had over 80 teams attend and around 650+ athletes making the field very deep and a very big task to make a top 30 for a final! 

Highlight Swims:

What a FUN experience for our athletes! Moving forward, before we wrap up the 2025-26 swim season, we do have a few swim meets left. Lasers will represent at; Sask Jr Provincial Championships this upcoming weekend, Man/Sask Championships in 4 weeks and the big show; Canadian Trials! Stay tuned and up to date (through socials and our awesome blog) on all the amazing accomplishments from your LASERS, and make sure to cheer them on as they close up, what has once again been an outstanding season! Let's go TEAM!!!

#OutTrainThem