AUSTIN, TX – The 'Blue and Gold' shone brightly in the 'Lone Star State' this weekend as a group of UBC swimmers competed in a Pro Swim Series Meet in Austin, Texas. Thunderbirds
Yuri Kisil and
Erika Seltenreich-Hodgson both found their way on to the podium against some of the top swimmers on the planet.
Kisil 'The Missile' was flying around the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swim Centre all weekend and ended up on the podium twice. On Friday evening, the second year Thunderbird swam an impressive 49.51 seconds in the 100 metre freestyle, good enough for the bronze medal. Kisil was even more impressive on Saturday night when he swam a blistering 22.46 seconds to capture the silver medal in the 50 metre freestyle race, finishing behind only Japanese Olympian Shinri Shioura.
"They were decent, I was pretty happy with the way things went this early in the season," said Kisil "It's always fun to get the opportunity to test my mettle against some of the best in the world."
Seltenreich-Hodgson swam to equally impressive results and was also a double podium finisher. On Saturday evening the 4th year Thunderbird and Ottawa native nailed a second place finish in 400 metre IM, touching the wall in a time of 4:39.51 and trailing only fellow Canadian Mary-Sophie Harvey.
Seltenreich-Hodgson followed that up with the bronze medal on Sunday evening in the 200 metre IM, swimming an impressive time of 2:12.70.
"Since I've come back from the Olympics my motivation and determination has been renewed and so far this year has been the best training I've ever done," said Seltenreich-Hodgson. "The fact that I'm going my fastest ever times in season shows that it's working for me and I'm just really happy with the progress I've made mentally and physically up to this point."
See the entire results for the Arena Pro Series at Austin here.
Thunderbirds 1st year swimmers
Hillary Metcalfe and
Markus Thormeyer showed experience beyond their years over the weekend, making the final race in the 100 metre breaststroke and 100 metre freestyle, respectively.
For the first time since the Rio Olympics
Emily Overholt took part in a competitive swim. The 1st year Thunderbirds and Olympic bronze medallist had been nursing a hamstring injury since the Rio games. Overholt and a collection of other Thunderbirds took part in the 2017 SwimBC Senior Circuit #2 in Surrey. The Thunderbirds will now prepare for the Colleges Cup-Mountain that will go February 3rd and 4th in Calgary.
