Peters Claims 100m Free

(CHARLOTTETOWN, PE) Charli LeBlanc has done it again.

The Varsity Reds swimmer recorded another CIS qualifying standard, on day two of the Dave Mills Memorial Invitational swim meet, at the University of Prince Edward Island.

LeBlanc won the women's 50-metre backstroke in a time of 29.48, almost a half second under the qualifying standard for the national university championships.

It was the third win of the meet for LeBlanc, who has now qualified for CIs in three events.

UNB's Marya Peters won the women's 100-metre freestyle, in a time of 58.32 seconds. Peters posted five top three finishes in the two-day competition.

LeBlanc and Peters were joined by Nadia Kashetsky and Kayla Martin on the women's 4X100-metre freestyle relay team. UNB swam to a second place finish.

It's not a race Martin would normally run. "It wasn't exactly our primary team. It was really fun, I don't usually do 100 free, I'm not a sprinter, per se. So, to come out with that result is really awesome."

Varsity Reds head coach Robin Ferdinand was pleased with her team's effort. "People are getting life-time bests, in January, which is not usually… with a month to go to championships, they're usually still in training mode and they are still swimming really well."

The Charlottetown meet was the last before the Atlantic University Sport championships, in Halifax, in February. In fact, teams now have four weeks to prepare for the conference championships. "That's better for us," says Ferdinand. "A few people are recovering from sicknesses and injuries. And this is a really good stepping stone, because people had some good swims here."

Kayla Martin agrees. ""The team is on a good track, I think we're ready, we've got to start supporting each other more, because it's going to get hard. It's crunch time."

The AUS championships take place February 12-14, at Dalhousie University, in Halifax.

On the men's side of the competition, Dalhousie's Gavin Dyke set a new AUS record in the men's 200-metre freestyle, clocking in at 1:49.27, besting the 24-year-old mark of 1:49.99, set by UNB's Jason Lukeman, in 1992.