SWIMMING: McGill men master Maritime meet, Martlets merit second place

By: Earl Zukerman

Trevor MacMillan, Dalhousie University

Samuel Wang (PHOTO: TREVOR MacMILLAN)

Men's Swimming | 11/18/2018 11:59:00 PM

HALIFAX, N.S.– Clement Secchi, a native of France, and Samuel Wang of Sherbrooke, Que., collected five and four gold medals, respectively, as the McGill men's swim team finished first in 12 of 19 events en route to winning the Kemp-Fry AUS Invitational meet at Dalhousie University, Sunday. On the women's side, McGill won five events to finish second of five competing schools, led by rookie Sarah Knott of Sherwood Park, Alta., who struck gold three times and broke a pair of long-standing school records.

By the end of the three-day competition, held at the Dalplex pool, McGill added six new names to their list of qualifiers for the U SPORTS national championship at UBC in February, which brings the team's season totals to 13 men and 11 women.

Secchi, an 18-year-old management freshman, claimed gold in the 50-metre backstroke (0:25.21) and the 200 back (2:00.50), posting qualifying times in each. He was also in on three winning relays, including the 4x200 free (7:30.99), the 4x100 free (3:22.97) and the 4x100 medley (3:42.96), which both met the qualifying standard.

Wang, a 22-year-old biochemistry junior, won the 200 free (1:51.72) and the 50 butterfly, which qualified for Nationals in 24.26 seconds. The 5-foot-10, 153-pound sprinter also helped guide two winning relays to the top of the podium, the aforementioned 4x100 free and 4x100 MR.

Knott, an 18-year-old arts freshman, pulled off a rare triple crown, sweeping all three breaststroke events and qualifying for Nationals in each. She completed the 50 in 32.82 seconds, the 100 in 1:10.65 and the 200 in 2:32.33. The 5-foot-7 sprinter broke the school record in the 100 breast during a morning prelim. Her time of 1:09.97 erased a 13-year-old mark set by Heather Bell (1:10.02) in 2005. Knott's time in the 200 surpassed a six-year-old McGill standard set by Valerie De Broux, who clocked 2:33.25 in 2012.

"I am very impressed with the team's overall performance," said Peter Carpenter, in his 10th season as head coach at McGill. "This is the fastest that I've seen the team at this point in the season given that 16 of our 35 participants in this meet weren't even fully rested and tapered for the meet, as they had already qualified for Nationals. For those who came here fully prepared to swim fast, things went extremely well. I would have been satisfied with gaining four qualifiers but in the end, we had six, so i'm very proud of the team. We also had five others who were very close to qualifying."

Other members of the Redmen who won multiple gold medals included David Brenken (400 free, 1500 free, 4x200 FR), Kade Wist (100 fly, 4x100 FR), Adrian Haasler (200 breast, 4x200 FR) and Eric Ji (100 breast, 4x100 MR).

Wist, an economics senior who hails from Calgary, booked his trip to the Nationals in the 100 fly. Also in on the winning relays were William Simpson (4x100 MR) and Marius Collin (4x100 FR).

Simpson, a 20-year-old psychology junior from Kingston, Ont., reached the 200m standard with his leadoff time in the 4x200 free. He was clocked in 1:49.88, becoming only the third swimmer in McGill history to crack the 1:50 barrier previously attained by Pierre-Alexandre Renaud and Marc-Andre Benoit.

Other gold medalists on the women's side went to Grace Valihora, an arts freshman from Toronto, who won the 200 butterfly with a qualifying time of 2:18.52 and Bailey Mothe, a sophomore from White Rock, B.C., who claimed the 400 IM in 4:58.38.

Rounding out the qualifiers were Katherine Na (200 back, 2:17.98), Colm Somers (400 IM, 4:25.45), William Hein (400 IM, 4:25.70) and Nikki van Noord, who reached the 50 free standard by 1/100th of a second after touching the wall in 26.50 during a time trial at the end of the meet.

The team now gets a two-month break from competition to work on their training and prepare for exams before their next competition, the fourth Quebec Cup conference meet at Laval in Quebec City (Jan. 19), the RSEQ championships at the U. de Montreal (Feb. 1-3) and the Nationals in Vancouver.

KEMP-FRY INVITATIONAL MEET TEAM STANDINGS (final)

WOMEN:
1. Dalhousie 976.5 pts
2. McGill 862.5
3. Acadia 492
4. UNB 287
5. Mount Allison 161

MEN:
1. McGill 1037 pts
2. Dalhousie 747
3. Acadia 553
4. Mount Allison 1

BEST McGILL PERFORMANCES AT 2018-19 Kemp-Fry Invitational (at Dalhousie, Nov. 16-18)

TEAM SCORING

MEN	POINTS		WOMEN	POINTS
McGill	1037		Dalhousie	976.5
Dalhousie	747		McGill	862.5
Acadia	553		Acadia	492
Mount Allison	1		UNB	287
			Mount Allison	161

MARTLETS					McGILL & RSEQ RECORDS:

EVENT	FINISH	FINALS	PRELIMS	NAME	YEAR	TIME	McGILL RECORD	RSEQ RECORD
50 Free	2	0:26.92		Nikki van Noord	1993	0:25.55	Andrea Nugent	0:24.39
100 Free	4	0:58.85		Nikki van Noord	1993	0:55.77	Andrea Nugent	0:52.62
200 Free	4	2:05.56		Gabriella Doueihy	2016	2:00.97	Simone Cseplo	1:54.91
400 Free	2*	4:22.09		Gabriella Doueihy	2014	4:16.35	Katie Caldwell	4:06.57
800 Free	2*	8:58.27		Gabriella Doueihy	2001	8:48.57	Karine Legault	8:37.59

50 Back	4	0:29.68		Emma Okumura	2014	0:28.27	Simone Cseplo	0:27.57
100 Back	4	1:04.16		Claire Shewchuk	2016	1:00.70	Simone Cseplo	0:58.78
200 Back	2*	2:15.14		Claire Shewchuk	1997	2:10.56	Lisa Virgini	2:05.71

50 Breast	1*	0:32.82		Sarah Knott	1997	0:32.01	Heather Bell	0:31.33
100 Breast	1*	1:10.65	1:09.97 (MR)	Sarah Knott	2005	1:10.02	Heather Bell	1:08.49
200 Breast	1*	2:32.33 (MR)		Sarah Knott	2012	2:33.25	Valerie De Broux	2:25.45

50 Fly	4	0:29.02		Grace Valihora	1993	0:27.66	Andrea Nugent	0:25.86
100 Fly	3	1:02.98		Grace Valihora	2018	1:02.22	Cecile Wiederkehr	0:57.98
200 Fly	1*	2:18.52		Grace Valihora	1998	2:15.72	Holly McComb	2:08.69

200 IM	2	2:21.74		Rebecca Gillis	2013	2:11.20	Katie Caldwell	2:11.20
400 IM	1	4:58.38		Bailey Mothe	2013	4:37.01	Katie Caldwell	4:37.01

4 x 50m FR					2016	1:45.41	Isabelle Brathwaite	1:38.88
							Katerina Cardi
							Simone Cseplo
							Katie Caldwell

4 x 100m FR	2	3:56.84		Gabriella Doueihy	2014	3:37.93	Simone Cseplo	3:36.34
				Nikki van Noord			Taryne Landry
				Erin Miller			Fanny Gervais-Cartier
				Isabella Pittinger			Katie Caldwell

4 x 200m FR	2	8:33.44		Bailey Mothe	2014	8:12.04	Simone Cseplo	8:01.35
				Gabriella Doueihy			Jennifer Darling
				Meaghan Morter			Taryne Landry
				Erin Miller			Katie Caldwell

4 x 50m MR				Emma Okumura	2014	1:57.67	Christine Aglot	1:50.99
				Sarah Knott			Valerie De Broux
				Nathalie Paquin			Sophie Overney-Ragan
				Nikki van Noord			Taryne Landry

4 x 100m MR	2	4:18.39		Rebecca Gillis	2015	4:12.54	Simone Cseplo	4:01.77
				Sarah Knott			Valerie De Broux
				Grace Valihora			Adriane Lui
				Gabriella Doueihy			Katie Caldwell

REDMEN					McGILL & RSEQ RECORDS:

EVENT	FINISH	FINALS	PRELIMS	NAME	YEAR	TIME	McGILL RECORD	RSEQ RECORD
50 Free	2*	0:23.16		Samuel Wang	2004	0:22.56	Ryan Tomicic	0:22.34
100 Free	2	0:52.02		William Simpson	2012	0:49.37	Marc-Andre Benoit	0:48.41
200 Free	1	1:51.72		Samuel Wang	2014	1:49.42	Marc-Andre Benoit	1:47.08
400 Free	1	4:00.70		David Brenken	2009	3:49.73	Steven Bielby	3:49.73
1500 Free	1	15:59.87		David Brenken	2010	15:18.04	Steven Bielby	15:18.19

50 Back	1*	0:25.21		Clement Secchi	2018	0:25.03	Samuel Wang	0:24.65
100 Back	3	0:57.34		Joseph Perry	2018	0:54.66	Samuel Wang	0:53.56
200 Back	1*	2:00.50		Clement Secchi	1992	1:59.23	Paul Watson	1:57.37

50 Breast	2	0:29.39		Eric Ji	2014/2018	0:28.79	Michael Luck / Kade Wist	0:27.92
100 Breast	1	1:03.49		Eric Ji	2018	1:02.26	Jason Galet	1:00.64
200 Breast	1	2:20.62		Adrian Haasler	2018	2:14.16	Jason Galet	2:10.29

50 Fly	1*	0:24.26	0:24.19	Samuel Wang	2017	0:23.81	Samuel Wang	0:23.81
	2*	0:24.96	0:24.72	Clement Secchi
100 Fly	1*	0:54.22		Kade Wist	2014	0:53.44	Marc-Andre Benoit	0;52.93
200 Fly	2	2:04.13		William Hein	2014	1:59.29	Pierre-Alexandre Renaud	1:58.62

200 IM	2	2:05.06		Colm Somers	2013	2:00.00	Steven Bielby	2:00.00
400 IM	2*	4:25.70		William Hein	2009	4:11.42	Steven Bielby	4:11.42

4 x 50m FR					2018	1:31.55	Brandon Freiberger	1:31.55
							Gabriel Fortin
							William Dixon
							Marius Collin

4 x 100m FR	1*	3:22.97		Kade Wist	2012	3:20.85	Marc-Andre Benoit	3:18.50
				Samuel Wang			Joseph Toops
				Clement Secchi			Michael Luck
				Marius Collin			Steven Bielby

4 x 200m FR	1	7:30.99		William Simpson	2013	7:24.89	Marc-Andre Benoit	7:19.62
				David Brenken			Steven Bielby
				Adrian Haasler			Erik Cheng
				Clement Secchi			Pierre-Alexandre Renaud

4 x 50m MR					2018	1:40.02	Bradley Crocker	1:40.02
							Samuel Wang
							Jason Galet
							Marius Collin

4 x 100m MR	1*	3:42.96		Clement Secchi	2018	3:40.23	Samuel Wang	3:37.90
				Eric Ji			Jason Galet
				Samuel Wang			Kade Wist
				William Simpson			Brandon Freiberger