Team spirit is alive and well for Manitoba's 17 varsity swimmers, who are ready to dive into the Canada West Swimming Championships from Friday to Sunday in Lethbridge. You can catch all of the action live on canadawest.tv.

The Bisons are coming off of a five-medal showing at the Odlum Brown Colleges Cup in BC, which helped the women land in the national rankings, at sixth. 
Manitoba's 4x50 freestyle relay, which consists of Hannah Schanel, Kelsey Fillion (co-captain), Georgia Pengilly and Dora Modrcin placed third, while also breaking a provincial record, with a time of 1:44.40. 

Individually, fifth-year veteran Dora Modrcin won gold in her signature event, the 50-metre backstroke, while also getting silver in the 50-metre butterfly. Third-year Megan Mozill (co-captain) also won silver in the 100-metre and 200-metre backstroke. 

On the men's side, team captain Carson Beggs qualified for the final in three different breast stroke events, while second-year Rhade Kostelnyk also qualified for the final in the 50-metre breast (new personal best of 29.88 seconds). 

First-year Brayden Stacey also reached the final in the 50-metre backstroke, posting a personal best time of 58.51 seconds, while second-year Andriy Usan got to the final in the 50 fly. 

"The team spirit was really, really good [at the Odlum Brown]. They suffered a little bit during COVID, and their comradery has flourished out of it a little bit more. We also made sure that we named team captains, and asked them to be more involved, so Carson, Megan and Kelsey [Fillion]," said head coach Vlastimil 'Vlastik' Cerny. 

"They took it on. They organize team dinners – this is kind of the first time that this has happened inside the team. It was all them."

New this year has been swimmers of the session. The first person that gets selected then picks the next swimmer, and that continues during the entire meet. They also get to don the coveted Bisons hat and horns. Cerny sees it as a great way for the team to stay engaged and to support each other, and the team has a lot of fun with it. 



"They pick accurately. Brayden, we thought had a really good morning session, and he got it first. Then Brayden had to pick somebody from the final, and he gave this speech at our last meeting, and it was pretty cool. He goes 'you guys made it hard,' and he highlighted the swimmers that had really good swims in the session. But ultimately he gave it to Megan."

The companionship amongst the group, which has jumped in numbers from 13 in 2019-20, to 17 this year, has been evident not only at swim meets, but in every day interactions. It's a circle of trust and accountability that has done wonders for team morale. 

"We have this thing now where if somebody misses a practice, it's hey, where were you? What's going on? There's two or three texts coming your way," Beggs, who qualified for nationals last year, noted at the end of the 2021-22 season. "We have a good thing going and it's working."

Goals for the conference championship
Cerny's goals for the team at Canada West are simple, but direct. 

"The people that are in medal positions, we want to get them on the podium," he noted. 

"We like our relays. The freestyle relay is a little bit stronger now, and we want the relays to do well and be in the medals. Because we are a smaller team and are limited by roster size, my biggest goal is that everybody improves. If we can walk away from the swim meet, because they're only allowed to swim four races individually at the competition, if they get even one personal best, that would be a success."

Individually, Modrcin is top-ranked in the 50 backstroke and 50 butterfly (set a new personal best in the prelims at Odlum Brown), and she'll look to finish off her last conference championship on a high note. She won her first goal in the former a year ago, and earned bronze in the latter. 

"Her strength has always been the 50, and she struggled sometimes in the 100, particularly when under pressure. Technically, we just keep working on it all the time. She has improved quite a bit. She's improved her stream-lining, she's improved her head position, lots of things over the years that she's managed. Her strength is her under water dolphin kick, she's gotten better and better at it."

Mozill, the swimmer of the meet at Odlum Brown, finished in the top six in both the 100 and 200-metre backstroke last year at the conference championship, and is on pace to medal, based on her previous results this year and year's prior. 

"Megan has really worked on her dolphin kick," mentioned Cerny. "In backstroke, you're allowed to stay under water for 15 metres. You have basically start and seven turns that you can stay under water for 15 metres, and she just nailed it."

Other swimmers to keep an eye on include Hanna Schanel, who was a conference medalist last year in the 50 free, as well as part of Manitoba's relays. Rookies Shea Guest and Ella Howe, both from Saskatchewan also "have good potential" as sprint freestylers, and there are many others also on the rise, including second-year Cameryn Carlos and Kelsey Fillion, 

On the male side, Beggs, who qualified for nationals last year in the 50 breast, is "a workhorse," while Kostelnyk "has the potential to deliver." Cerny also sees big things in the future of Usan, specifically in the 200 fly. 

"He doesn't know it yet," chuckled Cerny. 

"He's made some changes to his breathing. In butterfly, typically butterflyer's breath forward. There have been a few world class, including an Olympic champion and world record holder, Dennis Pankratov, who was breathing to the side. Andriy, on his own, he saw somebody doing it in a competition, and he started to experiment with it himself. He asked me what I thought. That's why I told him Dennis Pankratov. I competed against a butterflyer who was on the national team in my days that was breathing to the side. He's changed his breathing, and it has really changed his body position, and provided a more streamlined stroke for him."