Canada Names 2013 World University Games Squads

Swimming Canada has named their squad for the 2013 World University Games that will travel to Kazaan, Russia this summer to compete against the world’s best students of higher education. These rosters were chosen on combination of the CIS Championship results (Canadian college) in combination with the results from the World Championship Trials.

As was noted in the official Canadian qualifying standards, athletes who were eligible for both the World University Games and World Championship teams were encouraged to compete for both, and many took advantage.

Those swimmers who have chosen to do so will swim at the World University games in Kazaan from July 10th-17th, and then will have just shy of two weeks to prep for the World Championships in Barcelona, Spain, where swimming begins on July 28th.

Among the biggest names to have accepted that challenge include Brittany MacLean, who trains in the United States at the University of Georgia; UBC’s Savannah King, who also excels in the mid-to-distance freestyles, and Tera van Beilen, who has taken over the reigns of the women’s breaststroke group in Canada.

On the men’s team, the road warriors will be NCAA All-American Richard Funk from the University of Michigan, William Brothers and Alec Page from the University of Victoria, plus UBC’s Coleman Allen and Tommy Gossland.

They will be joined with names like Katie Caldwell from McGill, the sister of Hilary who starred on the 2011 WUG’s team; Michigan freshman Marni Oldershaw; Texas A&M freshman Ashley McGregor; Indiana freshman Brooklyn Snodgrass; and record-breaking sprint backstroker Kelly Aspinall on the men’s team.

The team is composed of 38 swimmers total; among them, the counts are 30 from CIS, 5 from the NCAA, and 3 from the Quebec CEGEP system.

Swimming has been Canada’s most successful sport at the Summer Universiade (as the meet is known in the most of the world), with 98 total medals, and 21 of them being gold.

Canada has also named the swimmers who will go on their annual European Mare Nostrum tour, which this year specifically will include for the Canadian swimmers stops in Barcelona and Canet, France. Evan White, Breanne Siwicki, and Jeffrey Swanston will make up that team.