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Men's Swimming

2009-10 Season Preview

This year’s Sea~Hawks men’s swim team has high expectations as they look to build upon last year’s record breaking success. In 2008-09, the Sea~Hawks had their most successful season since the early 1980’s highlighted by a second overall finish at the AUS Championships, and by qualifying four swimmers for the CIS Championships, competing in relay events for the first time in more than twenty years. Coach Brad Hutton has returned to lead the charge and says his team is hungry for more success.

Leading the Sea~Hawks will be fifth year distance freestyler Tim Rusted. Rusted will be looking to improve upon his individual success while moving up the ranks and making the CIS Championships for a fourth straight year. Also returning for his final year of eligibility is Bin Shen. Shen will aim to qualify for the CIS Championships in the individual freestyle events this year, while drawing upon his experience with the relay event from last year. Coach Hutton will look to these athletes to swim with confidence while competing at a national level and provide invaluable leadership to the rest of the young team.

Looking to break more records this season will be AUS men’s swimming Rookie of the Year, David Forbes. Forbes made a splash last year when he swam to two individual gold medals, two individual silver medals, and three relay silver medals at the AUS Championships, all of which he will aim to defend. At the CIS level, Forbes qualified for five individual events last season, valuable experience that will be sure to help him as he aims to move into the finals at this year’s CIS Championships. Other returning swimmers include Brett Foster who looks to close in on a CIS qualifying time in the butterfly, and 2009 Canada Games swimmers Tim Bennett and Matthew Avis. Both swimmers will be coming off a strong summers in the pool with Bennett aiming to make it to the CIS Championships in backstroke at the end of the season, and sprint freestyler Avis hoping to move up the AUS standings.

Making their debut in the pool for the ‘Hawks this year will be two more Canada Games athletes in sprint freestyler/backstroker Adam Harvey, and breaststroker Richard Hibbs. Harvey and Hibbs both had strong showings in the pool all summer and will race with the CIS Championships as their goal. Joining them will be Ryan Allen and Mason Jeddore, who will round out a Sea~Hawks team that looks to continue their re-write of the record books.

The Sea~Hawks are looking ahead to what is shaping up to be a great season with the theme based on more racing opportunities. Memorial will be racing the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns in a home and home Dual Meet format with the Pronghorns traveling to Memorial October 16-18 and the Sea-Hawks traveling to Lethbridge November 11-15. The team will also compete at the AUS Invitational at Dalhousie in November, the AUS Invitational at Acadia in January, AUS Championships at UPEI in February and finally at the CIS Championships in February.