Horn swimmers vye for Olympic spots

trevor.kenney — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 19:46:07 +0000

Eight current members of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Pronghorns swim team will travel to Montreal with Olympic dreams on the line. The Olympic trials will run from Mar. 27 to Apr. 1 at the Historic Montreal Olympic Pool. Rogers Sportsnet will be covering the action live nightly (5 to 6 p.m. MST).

Ryan Thornley, Jeffery Nicol, Mat Lyola, Matthew Mastromatteo, Tiha Konyves, David Errington, Zack McAllister and Jessica Kelly will represent the 'Horns at the trials, while former Pronghorn Kristy Gabruck will also compete.

Nicol led the way for the 'Horns at the Canada West Championships this season, winning three medals at the conference meet, while Thornley was the top Pronghorn at the CIS Championship meet in late February. Thornley finished sixth in the 50-metre fly and set a new school record in the process.

The lone female Pronghorn to compete in the CIS Championship, Jessica Kelly placed in three events and earned 17.5 points. Kelly won the 'B' final in the 100-metre fly.

Thornley, Nicol, and Kelly will be looking to crack the top 8 by making it to the 'A' final.

McAllister is in his first year at the U of L and has had a great season, having competed at the Pan American Games in Mexico this past fall. He will be competing for a spot on the Paralympic Team. Unfortunately for McAllister, he is still waiting on a classification appeal, and might not know if he has qualified until after the ruling has been made.

Kelly leads pool effort with two medals

trevor.kenney — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 18:20:01 +0000

Jessica Kelly won a pair of bronze medals and Jeff Nicol brought home a silver medal as the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Pronghorns men's and women's swim teams competed at the Canada West Championship meet in Vancouver this past weekend.

Kelly led the 18-swimmer contingent with bronze medal swims in the 50- and 100-metre butterfly events, setting new U of L school records in each swim. She also picked up a fifth-place finish in the 100-metre backstroke event.

Nicol, who won two medals last year in his home pool, captured a silver medal in the 200-metre breaststroke and was just short of breaking his own school record that was set earlier this season. Nicol also finished fifth in the 100-metre breast event.

On the team front, the men's squad moved up one spot from last year's performance, up to fifth place with 279 points. The women's team finished with 181 points, and was also fifth in Canada West, the same place they finished last year in Lethbridge. Host UBC Thunderbirds won both the men's and women's team titles.

In total, U of L swimmers set 57 personal best times.

"I'm ecstatic with the team performance this weekend, this is our best Canada West Championship in my six seasons," says Horns head coach Brad Mori. "Both teams finished fifth and that was our team goal from the start of the year. Our swimmers swam great. They raced the moments, taking care of individual performances, leading to a fantastic team result."

Mat Loyola (50- & 200-metre breaststroke) and David Errington (200m breaststroke) both earned qualifying times for the CIS Championships. Loyola finished sixth in both distances, while Errington also finished sixth in the 200-metre breaststroke.

Matthew Mastromatteo, Jessie Olson-Heisler, Roger Hanna, and Adam Krysiak inched closer toward CIS qualifying times, and will have two more opportunities to reach those times in the coming weeks.

The CIS Championships will be hosted by the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary Dinos, Feb. 25-27.

UNews - Matthew Mastromatteo

Horn swimmers vye for Olympic spots

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Kelly leads pool effort with two medals

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