Marauders make a splash at nationals

Since 1978 there have only been three teams to record a Men’s National Championship title.

This past weekend, the McMaster swim team set a new record amongst the rankings placing fourth among the elite three school’s only one spot behind UBC, Toronto and Calgary which took the top spots.

In a competition housing more than 28 teams from across the country, McMaster placed amongst the most elite schools in the nation and Head Coach Andrew Cole could not be more proud of his young team.

“It’s pretty exciting, to finish off the season on such a high note,” Cole said.

“McMaster swimming has a wonderful history of athletes competing on an international level,” he added.

“For us to finally be competitive on the national stage where were pushing against some of the top team’s in the country is great.”

With some Olympians competing over the weekend and going home empty handed, McMaster was proud to have 21 of their 25 swimmers score big for the maroon and grey.

McMaster’s own Cameron Bailey gave McMaster a medal in the competition being the first man to break the two minute barrier in the 200 individual medley and also played a huge role in the success of McMaster’s 4x100 m medley relay which helped McMaster place fourth in the competition and eighth overall for the all-time fastest performance in the country.

This year it was a strong Marauder force which broke records in the 4x50 m medley relay as a team consisting of Eric Anderson, Konrad Bald, Mohamed Eldah and veteran Matthew Vogelzang grabbed the fastest time in Canada, and the fourth fastest all-time performance in Canadian history.

The women also impressed as they took the third spot in Canada winning the Ontario Championships by more then three seconds thanks to the commending efforts of Kieren Liew, Alex Vanommen, Sarah Taylor and Emily Fung.

Bald also grabbed a bronze in the 50 m breast stroke coming just two weeks after he won gold in the 50 m and 100 m events and a silver in the 200 m at the Ontario Championships.

Rookie sensation Eric Anderson had an outstanding performance over weekend, swimming a lifetime- best performance in all of his events. After taking some time off from swimming and transferring from the University of Denver Anderson surprised everyone by breaking his own personal bests on the season despite being absent from swimming for a number of years.

With many firsts coming for McMaster and many names dropped as key members of the weekend’s success there is one swimmer in particular that really stood out to Coach Cole.

“From an improvement perspective a first year by the name of Martyn Siek really stands out to me,” said Cole.

“He had an outstanding year and his improvements since our start in the fall were un-parallel.”

With growth and development shown from Martyn Siek over the course of the season, Coach Cole has a strong team of veterans to thank for everything they bring to the table for the rookies.

“I think really we had a very young team and even some athletes who had incredible experience behind them who helped to teach the younger one’s how to compete at this level was something that was critical,” said Cole.

“A guy like Martyn took an interest in what they were teaching and learning and had noticeably the greatest improvement. It was really an effort across the board from every member on the team to get these kind of results.”

To round out the stellar team combined performance was the men’s 4x100 m freestyle relay event. Cameron Bailey, Eric Anderson, Marc Muise and Matt Vogelzang all swam to 50 second or less splits making it the fourth fastest time in the country to date.

With a successful season coming to a close, Coach Cole knows it’s all about the athlete’s who are willing to go the extra mile that is going to be a key factor in the team’s future success.

“This upcoming year is going to come down to who is going to do the best job,” said Cole.

“In the coming week’s we have the Commonwealth games trial and then we have the Summer National Championships in July in Saskatoon and it’s really going to come down to who is going to step up to the plate and who is really going to commit to performances at these events,” he added.

“From this we will hopefully be able to catapult on to even better performances next year.”

Whenever a coach experiences an underdog season victory, it is important for them to evaluate the ups and downs in order to pinpoint the elements that made their unit successful.

Coach Cole is aware that with every positive there will be negative’s and that perseverance is the key to any team’s success.

“As with any sport you’re going to have highlights and challenges and its one thing to feel great when you’re on top but the key element to any successful athlete or team whether its at an OUA level, provincial level, city level or the Olympics is perseverance,” said Cole.

“As an athlete you really have to be mentally tough and it’s about belief and perseverance. If we’re going to be successful and truly challenging some of the very best in the country and in the world we have to continue to push that envelope.”