Home pool advantage: MUN swimmers ready for the Atlantic University Sport swimming championships in St. John’s this weekend
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ST. JOHN’S, NL – Following this weekend’s Atlantic University Sport (AUS) Swimming Championships in St. John’s, some members of the host Memorial University’s Sea Hawks swimming team will have a change in their daily schedule.
For Kathryn Stokes, the 22-year-old captain of the Sea Hawks team, that means no more early-morning dips in the pool.
Ever since she was 12, Stokes has been getting up early every day for her workouts and training.
With her final competition this weekend, those morning workouts are behind her. While productive, these practices can be difficult, she said.
“My whole life – I’ve been swimming since I was 12, I’d like to say – and getting up every morning and going to the gym has been tough,” Stokes said. “I had my last morning workout (Tuesday morning). Holy I never had to wake up and drive here again. It’s just crazy.”
The prospect of doing away with early morning practice is enough to make anyone happy, but practicing this week was important for good reason.
Stokes and her team were preparing for the Atlantic University Sport (AUS) Swimming Championships and were put through their paces by coaches Duffy Earle and Chris Roberts.
So this weekend is a big one for your team as the championships are held at the Aquarena in St. John’s. Beginning Friday and ending Sunday, Sea Hawks swimmers will go head-to-head with the best the rest of the conference has to offer.
“Everyone’s absolutely thrilled, especially that it’s here,” Stokes said.
For the Memorial athletes, it is the first AUS championship to be held at their home pool in several years. They were supposed to host last season but that was pushed back to this year.
Now they are looking forward to the home advantage, so to speak. With the expectation of having the energy of their family and friends behind them, they hope that they will perform well.
That means getting on the podium, hitting some personal bests, and setting more provincial records. They also have plans to send more swimmers to the USports National Championships later in February.
Over the course of the weekend, the idea is to honor some former Memorial graduates by presenting event medals. The AUS Awards will also be distributed over the weekend.
“I think everyone’s pretty committed to what we all want to do and because it’s home it’s going to give us a little more advantage in shooting just because we have like the home crowd and stuff that’s going to be fun.” said he male swimmer Matthew Whelan.
Whelan, who has already qualified for the national championships, is one of several Sea Hawks to be seen in the pool this weekend.
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In addition to Stokes and Whelan, there are rookies Megan Holden and Matt LeCore, as well as Aliceyn Warren, Kate Williams, Heidi Perry and Thomas Chafe.
Most of these names had stellar weekends in the pool in November at the Kemp Fry Invitational hosted by Dalhousie University. There, Memorial brought home a dozen individual medals and set several provincial records.
For Whelan, the AUS meeting is an excellent opportunity to hone his game with the national teams just around the corner.
“It will help me a lot I think,” he said. “Just being good and getting some higher places here and having some close races will help me when I’m up there.”
While their early morning practice here seems to be behind, Stokes and the other graduated swimmers will be making the most of this competitive weekend.
What a way to go.
“I think everyone is looking forward to having this final competition in our home pool with our peers around us,” said Stokes.
The 2023 Subway AUS Swimming Championships began Friday morning at the Aquarena in St. John’s.