Written by Thomas Scott

The Dalhousie Tigers men’s swimming team has won another AUS Championship, the 24th in the last 25 seasons.

Winning was a common theme for the Tigers, winning each swim meet in the conference this season. The Tigers run began at the Jack Scholz Invitational, hosted by the Acadia Axemen.

Eleven first-place finishes were achieved on the weekend, winning with a total of 784 points, 339.5 more than the second-place Axemen. Logan Sparkes and Liam Ferguson captured two first place finishes on the meet's final day.

Then came November, a busy month for the Tigers with two meets. First, the Tigers travelled to the University of New Brunswick for the Amby Legere Invitational. Sparkes, Mascoll-Gomes and Ferguson clinched two first place finishes each on the first day of the meet. On the final day, Mascoll-Gomes had another two top finishes to clinch the victory.

Dal won 13 events and was victorious with a total of 792 points. Acadia followed Dal in second with 565 points.

The Tigers returned home to host the Kemp-Fry Invitational at Dalplex on November 24. Leading after all three days of the meet, the Tigers were victorious again, totalling 1,090 points.

The final race of the semester was the 4x400m relay. Ferguson, Mascoll-Gomes, Freddy Chandler-Baas and Connor Maloney led the way, winning the race in just over four seconds.

The Tigers returned to the pool on January 20 in Saint John, N.B. The meet, hosted by the UNB Reds, was the last of the season ahead of the AUS Championship.

The Tigers won with 1,062.5 points. Trailing the Tigers was Acadia, finishing with 496 points.

Tallying 1,006 points at the AUS Championship hosted by the Dalhousie Tigers at Dalplex, the Tigers captured their 24th title in 25 seasons. Dal took six AUS gold medals and the AUS title, shifting the focus to nationals on March 7.

Head coach Lance Cansdale was named the AUS Coach of the Year and Mascoll-Gomes was named the Student-Athlete Community Service Award winner.

Then came nationals, hosted by the McGill Redbird and Martlets. The Tigers finished 13th overall, with a fifth-place finish in the 200m freestyle from Mascoll-Gomes on the first day of nationals in the A final with a time of 1:53.71.

The 4x200m relay team led by Noah Thomas, Mascoll-Gomes, Sparkes and Cole Mitchell placed ninth on day two of nationals.

“I was quite pleased with the performance,” says head coach Lance Cansdale. “For the most part, we swam really well, and we had a lot of best times.”

Mascoll-Gomes swam his last season for the Tigers. The fifth-year commerce major goes down as one of the most decorated Tigers ever, winning the AUS Swimmer of the Year award in the 2021-22 season and the AUS Championship Swimmer of the Meet award in 2022-23. While he acknowledges the rest of the conference is quickly improving, but the 2023-24 U SPORTS Community Service Award winner is confident in Dal’s future.

“Time really flew by. It feels like I just got here. I'm glad for the people I met and the memories I’ve made.” says Mascoll-Gomes.

“I'm excited to see what's next for my teammates. It’s been such a dominant run for the program. It says something about the standard Dal holds themselves to and the culture that has been established,” he says.

Cansdale says Mascoll-Gomes will be a tough replacement.

“He’s a fantastic young man that we're really going to miss. I don't think I can actually describe it. What he has brought to the program the last three years,” says Cansdale. The Tigers are also losing Ewan MacLean to post-Dalhousie life. “Moving forward we can only think about getting better,” he added. “We have some really good recruits coming in that I feel by committee, can help cover off the loss of somebody like Noah.” Mascoll-Gomes was named the team MVP at the Black and Gold Athletic Banquet and the male President’s Award winner.