(ST. JOHN'S, Nfld.) - The Memorial Sea-Hawks will host the top university swimmers in the Atlantic University Sport conference this weekend as the 2014 Subway AUS swimming championships will be taking place at the Aquarena in St. John's, February 7-9.
The Subway AUS swimming championships, an esteemed annual event, provides the community with the opportunity to watch a large group of high-level varsity swimmers compete. In addition to Memorial University, other competing universities include: Dalhousie University, Acadia University, the University of New Brunswick, Mount Allison University and the University of Prince Edward Island.
This marks the second time Memorial has hosted the Atlantic university three-day championship event, the first dating back to 1984 where the host men's team took home the title.
The current reigning AUS champions, the Dalhousie Tigers, who are currently ranked seventh (women) and eighth (men) in the nation, will return to defend their 2013 titles.
According to Memorial swimming head coach, Aaron Dahl, the Sea-Hawks are looking forward to standing up against some great teams and are expecting to challenge for a second spot on the men's side, and a top-four finish on the women's.
"The opportunity for Memorial to host the Subway AUS swimming championships is profound," says Dahl. "It gives our varsity athletes the opportunity to race in front of their friends and family and gives us the chance to play host to some great teams and student-athletes. Most importantly though, for the first time in 30 years, young swimmers in Newfoundland and Labrador will be exposed to some very high-calibre swimming, including some national-level swimmers."
Sea-Hawks rookie Gavin Dyke earned his first CIS cut, and the first for Memorial since 2012, with a time of 15:45.44 in the 1500m freestyle, at the AUS Invitational hosted by Dalhousie in November. Dyke is fresh off a successful meet at the second Dalhousie Invitational where he brought home five gold medals just two weeks ago.
The CIS championships will take place in Toronto from February 20-22. (CIS championship website: http://english.cis-sic.ca/championships/swim/index)
The 2014 Subway AUS swimming championship will be free for the community with the official program and heat sheets costing $5.
The event will be webcast live at www.AUStv.ca.
Championship Schedule:
Friday, Feb. 7
10 a.m. - Preliminaries
5 p.m. - Opening ceremonies
6 p.m. - Finals
Saturday, Feb. 8
10 a.m. - Preliminaries
6 p.m. - Finals
Sunday, Feb. 9
10 a.m. - Preliminaries
6 p.m. - Finals
8 p.m. - Closing ceremonies and major awards presentations
Source: Memorial Sports Information