For this week's Throwback Thursday we would like to take a look back and recognize the success of the 2012-13 men's swimming team. Read their season recap below!
In a year of transition and tough luck, the Dal men’s swimming program proved that they were a close team that displayed its quality as the year progressed. In losing some key sprinters to injury and sickness hitting the squad at the wrong times, the Tigers were able to travel through the AUS schedule unbeaten and gut out a very close 11th place at the 2013 CIS championships. The story is not in the finish of the team, but in the journey where every swimmer was counted on at one point of the season or another to produce.
And produce is what they did. As new head coach Lance Cansdale tried to find his way, his swimmers continued in the great tradition of previous Dal champion teams and started to take team titles with the AUS Invitational UNB Amby Legère falling into the trophy cabinet of the Tigers. Even though the swimmers where challenged with off events and relay orders, they upped their game and won the majority of events. This continued through the AUS Jack Scholz meet at Acadia, through the Dal AUS Invitational, on to the Canada Cup in Toronto where four of the Tigers best came home from the national competition with three silver medals and 11 scoring swims!
Training camp over the Christmas break was a test, but the team bore down and focused towards a winter season of racing with the Acadia Senior Invitational and the AUS meet at Dalhousie, both of which finished with the Tigers on top. Then it was off to UPEI for the AUS championships, where despite an undermanned team, the Dal men won 12 of the 19 events, finishing with close to double the points that second place Mount Allison posted, and winning their 15th AUS championship in a row.
The challenge of Calgary and the CIS championships was a tough one, but once again the Tigers came to race. With only nine swimmers qualified, the meet was a measure of endurance along with a cap to each that represented the university. The men posted five top-ten finishes including two silver and one bronze medal by David Sharpe. In the end, when the waves had settled, the 2012-13 edition of the Dal Tigers men’s varsity swim team set or reset nine new Dal records, many AUS standards, and a number of Nova Scotia marks.
All in all, the season was one where the men’s team laid a foundation that can be built, once again, into a prominent national squad. That being said, in losing seniors Kit Moran (co-captain), Cameron Shin, Derek Sonnichsen, along with Matt and Brad Piggott to graduation, it will be tough to replace the points lost, but even tougher to replace the character and resolve. But, there is optimism for next season with a strong returning group of student-athletes, returning swimmers that were sidelined due to injury and a new crop of recruits that should add some much-needed depth immediately to the squad.