Saturday night:
The Acadia Axemen and Axewomen travelled to Halifax this past weekend for the 2022 Kemp-Fry AUS Invitational Swim Meet.
Starting off with distance timed finals on Friday night, the Axemen represented in the 1500m freestyle with rookie Myles McTavish taking bronze. On the Axewomen side, 5 women had strong swims in the 800m freestyle.
Friday night had the 4x200m freestyle relay with both the men and women taking 2nd place. Rooney started off the women's relay, followed by Earle, Hamilton, and Lancaster as the anchor. For the men, Sangster started things off, and Shortt, Vaillancourt, and Ingo fought until the end for a very tight finish.
Saturday night finals began with a blistering women's 50m freestyle with rookie Hamlyn taking silver with a time of 27.15 and team captain Morrison finishing 4th in a time of 27.21. For the Axemen, Sangster took first in a time of 23.07 in a USport qualifying time. Kenny finished in 3rd, Stokesbury-Price got 4th, Pitre in 5th, and finishing off the A-Final was Ramos in 7th.
Next up for the Axewomen, Rooney qualified for USports, broke the Acadia team record, and took bronze in the 400m individual medley with a time of 4:58.11. In the men's 400m IM, McTavish got 4th place with a very strong last 100.
Hamilton finished 2nd place in the 100m butterfly for the women and followed by Hamlyn in 4th and Nelson in 5th. Kenny took the win for the men's side with a time of 55.52.
The Axewomen had a very strong 200m backstroke presence with 5 finalists, including a very tight race with Stokes finishing 2nd and Earle closely behind in 3rd. Sangster took his second win of the night and another USports qualifying standard with a 2:00.85, just off his personal best.
Morrison won the women's 100m breaststroke with a new Acadia team record in a time of 1:12.62, followed by Collins who was also under the previous record time with a 1:13.05. With an incredible outside smoke from lane 8, Shortt took gold in a time of 1:03.25 and Deutsch finished 6th.
Lancaster and Brousseau dominated the women's 200m freestyle B-final finishing 9th and 10th overall. The Axemen had Stokesbury-Price with a 3rd place finish, Vaillancourt in 5th, and Pitre in 7th.
The 50m backstroke was won by Rooney with another USport qualifying time of 29.07, tying her prelims time. Also in the A-final, Hamilton finished 3rd, Earle in 5th, and Stokes in 7th. In a tight race, Sangster got silver on the men's side.
Finishing off the night with the 4x100m freestyle relay, Acadia got silver on the women's side, led off once again by Rooney, followed by Earle, Morrison, and closing the gap as the anchor, Hamilton. The Axemen dominated the competition finishing just under 5 seconds ahead of 2nd place. Stokesbury-Price lead off, followed by Sangster, Ramos, and Shortt with an extremely strong finish split of 49.98.
Sunday night:
Day 3 finals of the 2022 Kemp-Fry AUS Invitational had the Acadia Axemen and Axewomen following closely in 2nd place for points behind the Dalhousie Tigers.
Starting off the final session of the meet was the women's 200m butterfly, with Stokes taking 4th place and Bennett finishing 7th. On the men's side, Kenny was off to a quick start, splitting a 58.71 at the 100m mark and finished 3rd overall.
Following the qualifying prelim session on Friday evening, the women's 50m breaststroke was dominated by the Axewomen. Morrison was first to the wall, Collins finished 2nd, and Lancaster touched in 5th place. Both Collins and Morrison had USports qualifying swims and crushed the Acadia Record in the 50m breaststroke from the 2018-2019 season. Morrison now holds the record with a time of 32.57. Axemen Shortt and Deutsch finished 1st and 4th respectively. Shortt having the individual swim of the night in the 50m breaststroke with A USports qualifying swim as well as obtaining the AUS record with a time of 28.46.
In the women's 100m freestyle, Earle put up a strong back half of the race to get 4th and narrowly missed the podium by 0.01. Hamlyn finished 7th. For the Axemen, Stokesbury-Price placed 2nd having a swift opening 50. Pitre finished 4th and Ramos finished 6th overall.
In the 200m individual medley, Rooney was first to the wall once again. In a time of 2:17.03, Rooney took down the Acadia team record and added another USports qualifying time to the list. Team captain Morrison finished 5th, Lancaster finished 6th, and Brousseau touched in 7th. On the men's side, McTavish swam a strong race achieving a personal best time of 2:13.27 and finishing 5th overall.
In the 100m backstroke, Stokes had a strong second half of the race and took 2nd place. On the Axemen side, Sangster put up a good race to out-touch competitors for gold with a USports qualifying time of 55.45. Day finished 4th in a time of 57.72.
Collins represented the women's side in the 200m breaststroke and dominated the heat by finishing 4.29 seconds ahead of 2nd place. Shortt and Deutsch took 1st and 2nd for the men's 200m breaststroke. Shortt had a beautifully split race and took the win in all 3 breaststroke events over the weekend.
Axewomen showing their power in the final fly event of the meet. Four Axewomen represented Acadia in the A-final of the 50m butterfly. Rooney, the new record holder in this event, finished 1st, Hamiliton followed coming 3rd, Nelson finished 7th, and Bennett touched in 8th. Teammates and training partners Kenny and Vaillancourt finished 2nd and 3rd respectively in the men's 50m butterfly.
For the 400m freestyle, the Axewomen had 4 swimmers representing the team in the B-final. McTavish represented the Axemen finishing 5th. Perkins had a phenomenal swim and won the B-Final by over 5 seconds.
Wrapping up the 2022 Kemp-Fry AUS Invitational Swim Meet was the 4x100 Medley relay. Rooney started things off for the Axewomen, splitting a 1:01.71 on the backstroke leg, which is also a new Acadia team record. Collins followed Rooney and held their lead for the entirety of the breaststroke leg, Hamilton swam a speedy butterfly leg, and Earle held off the Dalhousie Tigers to secure the win for the Axewomen. This win was historical for the women breaking the Acadia team record and defeating Dalhousie for the first time in over 20 years.
The Axemen swam to a first-place finish in the men's 4x100 Medley Relay. Sangster started things off in the backstroke leg, acquiring the lead. Shortt extended the lead with his breaststroke dominance, splitting a best time of 1:02.51. Teammate Kenny maintained the lead during the fly leg of the relay, splitting a time of 55.99 before handing it off to anchor Stokesbury-Price. Stokesbury-Price once again extended the lead touching the wall over 4 seconds ahead of the Dalhousie Tigers.