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Flashback Friday (February 10)

2002-03 women's swim team
2002-03 women's swim team
Posted: Feb 09, 2017

This week’s flashback Friday goes to the 2002-03 AUS Championship winning women’s swim team. BACK ROW (L-R): David Fry (Head Coach), Ryan Hood (Assistant Coach), Heather Crowdis, Maria Nikolajev (Trainer), Elaine Munroe, Kiera Aitken, Natalie Dupuis, Heather Lee, Gail Whittaker, Caitlin Peterson, Anna Bishop (Manager), Adam Widdis (Assistant). FRONT ROW (L-R): Diana Bennett, Melanie Melanson, Leigh Jaschke, Hannah Fraser, Sandi Mclean, Maureen Mahoney, Lori Borgal, Andrea Roberts, Nyla Hurd, Lesley Hambleton. 

A talented blend of rookies and experienced veterans began the 2002-03 season setting goals of winning their second consecutive AUS Championship, qualifying 18 women for the CIS Championship, and finishing in the top five at CI’s.  In the end, the Tigers achieved two out of the three goals and came extremely close to the other.

Going into the AUS Championship the Tigers were led by team MVP Melissa Hubley. At the championships Hubley would go on to win both the 100m and 200m butterfly as well as tying Nancy Garapick’s 20 year old record in the 400m freestyle.  With the three event wins Hubley would qualify for the CIS Championship with 16 of her teammates, making it the largest delegation in the country and the most in team history. At the CIS National Championship Hubley won a bronze medal in both the 200m fly and the 4x100m. The relay team consisted of Hubley, Sandi Mclean, Kiera Aitkens, and Gail Whittaker, with the bronze medal finish they set a new AUS record by four seconds.

The Tigers achieved their goal of a top five finish, making it the highest Dalhousie finish in 20 years by finishing fourth out of 30 teams in attendance.

The Tigers had 17 AUS First Team All-Stars including Kiera Aitken, Diana Bennett, Heather Corwdis, Lesley Hambleton, Leigh Jaschke, Sandi Mclean, Caitlin Peterson, Colleen Smith, Gail Whittaker, Chrissy Najcar, Lori Borgal, Natalie Dupuis, Melissa Hubley, Heather Lee, Elaine Munroe, Andrea Roberts, and Melissa Spencer.

Head coach David Fry was named, the AUS Women’s Coach of the year, an honour he would win a total of ten times. Fry was also named the CIS Women’s Coach of the year, the first Dalhousie coach to win it since Nigel Kemp in 1979-80.

The 2016-17 men’s and women’s swim teams are competing at the AUS Swimming Championships this weekend in Charlottetown, PEI at the University of Prince Edward Island.