Molson Weekend Summary Feb. 7 2010
Swimmers make a splash at AUS
The Memorial Sea~Hawks were on the road this weekend in swimming,
women’s volleyball and women’s basketball. The swimmers
avoided any travel delays on their way to PEI for the AUS
championship where they set a number of provincial records. Leah
Tomblin led the way for Memorial winning a gold in the 100m
backstroke.
The women’s basketball and women’s volleyball teams
were forced to reschedule their weekends. The basketball team
played at Acadia on Sunday afternoon, losing 79-76 and will play
the second game on Monday at 2 p.m. The women’s volleyball
team lost to St. FX in the opener on Sunday 3-0 and will play again
on Monday at 11 a.m.
Swimming
The Memorial swimming teams competed in the 2009-10 AUS
Championship at UPEI this weekend with both the men’s and
women’s teams cracking the top three.
Men
The men raced their way to a second place
finish behind the eventual champion Dalhousie team. On the weekend
the team saw a number of athletes race to personal bests. On Friday
in the opening session Adam Harvey set a personal best in the 200m
freestyle with a time of 1:57.37, which was good enough for 4th
place. In the 100m breaststroke three Sea~Hawks set personal best
times. Ryan Allen and Richard Hibbs both cracked 1:10 with times of
1:09.57 and 1:09.79, placing them in 5th and 6th, while senior Tim
Rusted, known for his distance events, set a personal best of
1:10.09. Brett Foster also set a lifetime best in the 100m
butterfly with his 9th place time of 1:01.40. Teammate David Forbes
was fifth in that event with a fast time of 57.90.
The men’s relay team finished out the session with a
blistering time in the 4X100m freestyle that put them in 2nd place.
The team of Harvey, Forbes, Rusted and Hibbs broke a Newfoundland
and Labrador provincial record with a time of 3:33.65, a record
that has stood since 1984. Harvey opened the relay by taking a
second off his personal best time with a 53.05.
On Saturday there were a couple of highlights for the Memorial men.
David Forbes was just out touched in both the 50m freestyle and 50m
butterfly sprint events, finishing second and third respectively.
Adam Harvey continued to set new personal records, topping his
previous best in the 100m backstroke for a 1:00.97 5th place finish
while Richard Hibbs also set a best time by three seconds in the
200m breaststroke coming in at 2:31.35 in 6th place.
On day two the relay team was once again the story for the men
with the 4X200m freestyle relay team of Harvey, Rusted, Hibbs and
Forbes becoming the first Newfoundland team to break the eight
minute mark since 1984. Their time of 7:58.25 was good enough to
put them in second place.
On Sunday the Sea~Hawks closed out the meet with more personal
bests. Harvey set another mark in the 100m free with 52.79 putting
him in sixth, two spots behind teammate Forbes who clocked in at
52.16. Hibbs set a personal best mark in two events. He finished
fourth in the 200m IM, shaving five seconds off his previous best,
with a time of 2:14.75. He also set a new personal mark in the 50m
breaststroke coming in 6th place.
Overall coach Brad Hutton was extremely pleased with the
team’s performance coming in second place. David Forbes and
Tim Rusted have qualified for the CIS championships at the
University of Toronto from February 18-20.
Women
The Memorial women opened the AUS
championships on Friday evening with fast times pushing them into
the top three in the overall standings. Leah Tomblin was the first
Sea~Hawk on the podium with her third place finish in the 50m
backstroke with a time of 31.47 that set a new Memorial record.
Erin Daly set a new personal best in the 100m breaststroke with her
time of 1:20.24 in preliminary heat, she would eventually finish
11th in the event.
Like the men, the story on the opening night was the 4X100m
freestyle relay team. The Memorial team of Hogan, Tomblin, Rogers
and MacGillivray set a Newfoundland and Labrador record with a time
of 4:02.92 to put them in second place. The previous record time
was set in the same pool at last summer’s Canada Games. Hogan
set the pace with an opening leg personal best of 1:00.20.
On Saturday the personal bests kept piling up but it was Leah
Tomblin who made the headlines with her gold medal finish in the
100m backstroke. Her time of 1:06.52 put her at the top of the
podium.
Teammate Kelsie Rogers also had a great day, finishing third in
the 50m freestlye and 5th in the 50m butterfly, breaking thirty
seconds for the first time in her life and missing the podium by
only .15 of a second. It was also another provincial record
breaking day for a Memorial relay team. This time is was the team
of Hogan, Tomblin, MacGillivray and Rogers that set a new mark of
8:58.13 in the 4X200m freestyle relay.
In the final day of the AUS championships the Sea~Hawks had three
personal best times and three podium finishes to end a successful
meet. Hogan finished 3rd in the 100m freestyle setting a Memorial
record with a time of 58.96 and missing CIS qualification by only
.25 of a second. Tomblin found the podium again with a third place
finish in the 200m backstroke.
Other highlights included the personal bests by Monica
MacGillivray in the 200m IM, fourth place, and Erin Daly in the 50m
breaststroke, sixth place. The relay team of Tomblin, Daly, Rogers,
Hogan finished in second place in the 4X100m relay.
Full Results available courtesy UPEI Athletics
Women’s Volleyball
The women’s volleyball were forced to reschedule their
weekend series against St. FX due to weather delays associated with
the blizzard that hammered Newfoundland on Friday. The Sea~Hawks
arrived to play on Sunday evening at 7 p.m. with the second match
scheduled to go Monday at 11 a.m.
On Sunday evening St. FX showed why they are a team to watch out
for in AUS play, taking the match in straight sets with scores of
25-11, 25-18, 25-20 (boxscore).
Catherine Thornton was unstoppable for St. FX with 17 kills in the
match. The Sea~Hawks offense had trouble getting going with Erin
Bursey leading the way with 6 kills. Libero Nicole Jolliffe had 16
digs in the loss.
Women’s Basketball
The women’s basketball team also had a brush with Mother
Nature as they could not take flight to make it for the scheduled
weekend series in Wolfville against Acadia. The travel delay
resulted in rescheduled game times of 2 p.m. on both Sunday and
Monday.
On Sunday the Axewomen outlasted the Sea~Hawks by a score of 79-76
(boxscore).
The Sea~Hawks got behind early and could not overcome a eleven
point halftime deficit despite a big third quarter run.
Acadia was led by Alise Brown with 23 points and 5 assist. Brown
was joined by three other Acadia players in double figures.
Vicki Thistle was a bright spot for Memorial with 22 points and 10
rebounds in 37 minutes of work. Thistle was 9-14 from the field in
the loss.
The Sea~Hawks will look to rebound on Monday as they gear up for a
push at securing the second place in the AUS heading into
playoffs.