By Lisa Koyama-Wong, UBC Artistic Swimming SC Marketing & Communications Executive
The UBC TSC Artistic Swimming athletes had a successful weekend competing at the first event of the year, the Canadian University Artistic Swimming (CUASL) Westerns. Great performances qualified them for CUASL Nationals.
“I’m so proud of how UBC competed at Westerns and I’m excited for to showcase our routines at Nationals!” – Zara Herbert
CUASL Westerns | Surrey, BC | January 21st & 22nd, 2023
Day 1
The competition started off strong with our extra routines on Saturday with our Experienced solos sweeping the podium and our Novice solos placing 2nd and 5th.
The experienced soloists swept the podium. Claire Hein-Salvi (2nd, left), Xera Vegter Maharajh (1st, centre), Serena Chin (3rd, right)
Novice soloists Penny Raymond (5th, left) and Ava Keshavarzsafiei (2nd, right)
We ended off the first day of competition with our Novice duet placing 2nd and our Experienced duet taking home 1st place.
Experienced Duet: Flynne Gossling and Marissa Enns with their first place ribbon.
Experienced Solo
1st - Xera Vegter Maharajh
2nd - Claire Hein-Salvi
3rd - Serena Chin
Novice Solo
2nd - Ava Keshavarzsafiei
5th - Penny Raymond
Experienced Duet
1st - Marissa Enns & Flynne Gossling
Novice Duet
2nd Place - Raiyana Alibhai & Bryce Wilson
Day 2
The competition continued on Sunday with the team events. In the Novice division, our Novice team showed off their dance-themed routine capturing 2nd place.
The White team placed 4th with their Madonna-themed routine and the Gold team placed 2nd with their energetic disco routine.
Finally, the Blue team captured the gold in this category claiming the title of Western Champion for the 4th year in a row.
Returning athlete Zara Herbert shared, “It was great to compete alongside other athletes in the greater BC artistic swimming community at Westerns! I’m so proud of how UBC competed at Westerns and I’m excited for to showcase our routines at Nationals!”
These results qualify all of our routines to compete at the CUASL National Championship in March. There, we will be facing Canada's top universities with hopes to repeat as National Champions!