Smal Begins Comeback With Win
(FREDERICTON, NB) The Dalhousie Tigers scored 12 wins in the 18 events held on the final day of competition at UNB's Amby Legere Invitational, the first meet of the 2024-2025 Atlantic University Sport swimming season.
Acadia swimmers won four events, while host REDS captured a pair of race wins.
Dal's Alexia Morgan and Isaac Bahler swept the 200-metre butterfly events while teammates Emilie Schofield and Logan Sparkes won the women's and men's 400-metre freestyle races.
Dal's Quinn Nolan won the men's 50-metre backstroke while UNB's Leah Smal won the women's 50-metre backstroke, beating Acadia's Sophie Rooney by 13/100ths of a second.
Smal is back with the REDS, and back at school, after a three-year absence.
"It's been fun," she said, of the first meet of the season. "I guess we'll just have to see what happens. Hopefully we'll improve a little bit."
In the women's 100-metre backstroke, Dal's Schofield edged Smal at the wall.
Tiger Liam Ferguson won the men's 100-metre backstroke.
Acadia swept the 50-metre butterfly races with Sara Bennett winning the women's race and Marcus Vaillancourt winning the men's race. Vaillancourt was just 2/10ths of a second quicker than UNB's Blake Kingston to the wall.
"We've done a lot of hard training this year and this is the best state our team has ever been in, from what I've seen," said Kingston. "We're really excited to get some good results this season."
Ella Collins won the women's 100-metre breaststroke while Dal's Connor Maloney won the men's race, leading a Tigers podium sweep.
UNB's Maxime Kenny won the men's 100-metre individual medley in a time of 59.41 seconds, the only swimmer under one-minute. Kingston finished third, 6/100ths of a second behind Acadia's Nate Thompson.
"We don't have huge expectations for the first meet," said Kingston. "It's great to see that we're having some success in a lot of events."
Rooney won the women's 100-metre individual medley.
In the women's 200-metre individual medley, Dal's Kate Tuck beat UNB's Jessie Collett, and Dal's Sparkes won the men's race. UNB's Kenny was third.
The next event on the AUS schedule is the Jack Scholz Memorial Invitational, at Acadia, November 2nd and 3rd.
RECAP BY: Andy Campbell/UNB Athletics
PHOTOS BY: Fran Harris/for UNB Athletics