VANCOUVER – The T-Birds were flying at the UBC Aquatic Centre this weekend, as they had the chance to take on some fellow U SPORTS competition for the first time this season at the University Cup Pacific.
The short course meet was a resounding success for the blue and gold, as they won both the men's and women's team titles and broke nine meet records in seven different events over the two days.
"I think having one less competition in our cycle has actually allowed us to have a clear run into this meet, and this was our first real opportunity to really see where the team is at," said Thunderbirds head coach
Derrick Schoof.
"I'm really pleased with the performances I've seen…when I see some of the meet records that are being broken, particularly the relays, and knowing who was on those relays before, it really gives me a lot of pride in these guys for how they're doing and coming together as a team."
Countless T-Birds provided strong performances, with the men's and women's teams combining to produce a staggering 70 podium finishes in 42 events.
Emma O'Croinin led the way on the women's side with eight first-place finishes (four individual and four relay) while
Kai Lilienthal recorded seven first-places (four individual and three relay) on the men's side.
Lilienthal dominated his Butterfly events, breaking meet records in both the 50m (22.94 seconds) and 100m (52.41). He was also part of the UBC Men's 4x50m Freestyle Relay team that broke the meet record (1:27.96), along with
Canek Bracho Maganda,
Frank Ho and
Yuri Kisil.
Kisil smashed meet records of his own in the 50m Freestyle, turning in a new best time of 22.02 seconds in the Sunday morning prelims, before breaking it again that same night with a time of 21.65. He, Bracho Maganda,
Joel Blanco and
Jake Gaunt also broke the Men's 4x100m Freestyle Relay meet record (3:16.60) in the final race on Saturday.
On the women's side,
Eloise Allen had a double-record break in Saturday's 50m Butterfly, taking down the previous best mark in both the prelims (26.72) and finals (26.60). She, O'Croinin,
Bridget Burton and
Sela Wist then ended off Sunday with a meet record in the Women's 4x100m Medley Relay (4:00.92).
Nine races had full Thunderbird podium sweeps. That included the Men's 100m Freestyle (Kisil, Gaunt, Blanco), Men's 50m Breaststroke (
Justice Migneault,
Ethan Hemeon,
Sebastian van de Logt), Women's 100m Backstroke (Burton,
Natascha Borromeo,
Piper Mitchell), Men's 100m Backstroke (Lilienthal,
Raben Dommann,
Jaques Harrison), Men's 400m Freestyle (
Zachary Parise,
Olivier Risk, Gaunt), and Men's 200m Breaststroke (Migneault, van de Logt, Hemeon) on Saturday.
On Sunday there were further sweeps in the Men's 50m Backstroke (Lilienthal, Dommann,
Joran Orogo), Men's 200m Freestyle (Parise, Gaunt,
Paul Hebrard), and Men's 50m Freestyle (Kisil, Ho, Bracho Maganda).
Other top finishers for the T-Bird women included
Ruby Kehler, who finished first in both the 200m Freestyle (1:59.80) and 800m Freestyle (8:50.25), as well as Burton, who claimed individual first in both the 100m Freestyle (55.54) and 100m Backstroke (59.17).
For the men, Migneault came through with two other individual first-place finishes in addition to the two mentioned above, in the 100m Breaststroke (59.32) and the 200m Medley (1:59.90).
After such an impressive showing, the confidence will be flowing for the T-Birds ahead of their trip to Lethbridge for the Canada West Championships in three weeks' time.
"It really puts us in a good spot," said Schoof. "With three weeks to go, we have a really good sense of where we're at and we just need to keep doing what we're doing and hold the course. There's some fine-tuning, some minor adjustments, and I'm going to give them a little more rest heading into the meet which should allow them to rise up and go even faster."
The conference championships run from November 28 to 30 in Alberta. The women's team will be aiming to make it four banners in a row, while the men are looking to go back-to-back after they reclaimed conference glory last year at home.
For the final results of all races at the 2025 University Cup Pacific, click
DAY ONE and
DAY TWO.
MEN'S TEAM STANDINGS
1. UBC Thunderbirds – 1,578 points
2. Calgary Dinos – 1,079.5 points
3. Victoria Vikes – 678.5 points
4. Team BC – 585.5 points
5. Lethbridge Pronghorns – 411 points
6. Manitoba Bisons – 325 points
7. Regina Cougars – 230.5 points
WOMEN'S TEAM STANDINGS
1. UBC Thunderbirds – 1,301.5 points
2. Calgary Dinos – 977 points
3. Team BC – 874.5 points
4. Victoria Vikes – 641 points
5. Lethbridge Pronghorns – 440 points
6. Manitoba Bisons – 314 points
7. Regina Cougars – 261 points
