Greater Sudbury Northern Life
Five of the top Laurentian men's swimmers will see how they stack up against national competition at the Canada Cup in Etobicoke, Ontario this coming weekend.
Blair Smith, Tuan Anh Pham, Kyle Moore, Marc McCulloch, and Zachary Hurd will represent the blue and gold in one of the top races in the country of any level.
To qualify for the Canada Cup, standards are faster than what is required to qualify for the CIS championships, which will take place in February in Vancouver. Swimmers have a year to post a time to qualify them for this prestigious meet.
The Canada Cup in Etobicoke this weekend is the first of three on the year, and will give the swimmers a chance to see where they stand nationally, and how hard they need to train over the winter in order to improve for CIS championships. Some events will have upwards of 100 participants.
Smith (Cobourg, Ont.) will swim the 400-metre individual medley and 400-metre freestyle; Pham (Vietnam) will compete in the 50 and 100-metre breaststroke; Moore (Brampton, Ont.) dives in, in the 400 and 1500-metre freestyle; McCulloch (Oshawa, Ont.) will race long-distance in the 800 and 1500-metre freestyle, while Hurd (Australia), a butterfly specialist, will reach for the wall in the 100 and 200-metre fly.
"This will give them insight as to what they need to work on over the winter training camp to make it to the podium come CIS championships," said head coach Phil Parker in a release. "All the swimmers will look to be at their season best and try to crack the top 16 for points."
McCulloch will get the Aqua Vees going on Friday when he dives in, in the second event of the day, the 800-metre freestyle.
Preliminary races each day will take place over the noon-hour with finals scheduled for the evening each day. Laurentian will be in the pool each of Friday, Nov. 28, Saturday, Nov. 29 and Sunday, Nov. 30.
