Dalhousie women, Acadia men set to defend AUS swimming titles
By Corey LeBlanc
(HALIFAX, NS) The Dalhousie Tigers and Acadia Axemen are set to defend their conference crowns this weekend at the 2022 Subway Atlantic University Sport (AUS) Swimming Championships.
The three-day event—from Friday, March 11 to Sunday, March 13—will take place at Dalplex on the Halifax university campus.
The Dal women, who topped the podium in all three regular-season conference meets, will be shooting for an unprecedented 20th consecutive AUS banner.
“Everyone is pretty excited,” Tigers head coach Lance Cansdale says of having the opportunity to go for gold in their home pool.
Noting that the Tiger women have achieved several “national level swims” this season, he adds he takes great pride in the “incredible development” of his first-year student-athletes—both the true freshmen and those in their second year of university who are competing for the first time due to last season being wiped away by the COVID-19 global pandemic.
Cansdale notes he will be interested to see how his young Tigers will handle their first time on the championship stage.
“So much can happen,” he offers, while reiterating his confidence in his female student-athletes ability to have a strong showing in an effort to remain champions.
Nevertheless, he says it won’t be easy, noting the stiff competition from the likes of the Memorial Sea-Hawks, who nipped at the Tigers' heels throughout the season with second-place podium finishes; not to mention the Acadia Axewomen, who captured silver in 2020—the most recent year that the championships took place. The UNB REDS—the bronze medallists from two seasons ago—and Mount Allison Mounties are also on the hunt for conference supremacy.
“It should be a great weekend of swimming,” Cansdale says.
On the men’s side, the Axemen will be vying for back-to-back banners. In 2020, they unseated the perennial powerhouse Dalhousie Tigers—a program that had captured 21 consecutive AUS championships—as top dogs in the pool.
“We are very excited to return to competition and celebrate the athletes' hard work and commitment during these challenging times. It has been almost two years since the last AUS championships and we are honoured to carry the trophy [into that meet],” Acadia head coach Kris Bell says.
Noting that it will be the first conference championship for several first and second-year student-athletes, he adds, “We are proud to celebrate the entire AUS and our athletes’ resiliency and accomplishments, both in and out of the pool.” Like every AUS competitor, varsity swimmers have had to deal with uncertainty over the past two years, including training interruptions, along with the postponement or cancellation of meets.
In 2020, when the Axemen swam to their first AUS banner since 1981, the Tigers garnered second place, while the Memorial Sea-Hawks took the bronze-medal spot on the podium.
“The Dal Tigers have an unbelievably strong history of depth and success throughout their program and will always be competitive,” Bell offers, when asked about the battle for conference supremacy in 2022. The Tigers collected first place in every AUS meet this season, while the Axemen finished second each time.
Bell expects every team to bring their best effort this weekend.
“We have all experienced challenges throughout the season and the AUS championship will bring phenomenal races from each program,” he says.
Cansdale notes that for the first time in quite a while, the Tiger men are not entering the final meet as “returning champs.”
“We are the hunter and not the hunted.”
Like Bell, he expects a competitive weekend in the pool.
“It should be exciting,” Cansdale says.
The 2022 Subway AUS Swimming Championships will be closed to the public, but fans can catch the championship action on AUStv.ca.
The 2022 U SPORTS Swimming Championships, scheduled for March 24 to 26, will be hosted by the Laval Rouge et Or in Quebec City.