Kingston Leads REDS At Legere Meet

(SAINT JOHN, NB) The UNB REDS finished in second place in the combined team standings at this weekend's Amby Legere Invitational, the fourth event on the Atlantic University Sport swimming schedule. UNB played host to the event at the Canada Games Aquatic Centre, in Saint John.

Dalhousie won the combined team scores title, finishing atop the women's and men's standings.

The REDS men finished second in the team standings while the UNB women were third, behind Dal and Mount Allison.

Sunday's second of two days of competition saw UNB's Blake Kingston win two more races.

He won twice on Saturday as well.

Kingston won the men's 50 and 200-metre breaststroke races.

"This meet is good prep for AUS and winning four means we're going in the right direction, so I'm pretty happy," said Kingston. "Swimming is an individual sport, but it takes a whole team for people to swim well. I always look forward to the relays and training with others in practice, keeping pace and the motivation we give each other on off days."

"His ability to control the races and be aware of his surroundings is impressive," said REDS' head coach Marta Belsh. "He races the race to win it, which shows a lot of maturity."

In the 50-metre race, Kingston beat Dal's Cameron Carlyle by just 1/100th of a second. UNB's Ethan Nestoruk was third, just a tenth of a second back of Carlyle.

The REDS' Maxime Kenny was second in the men's 200-metre backstroke and teammate Camden Reid was second in the men's 100-metre butterfly.

The UNB women got impressive results from a pair of first-year REDS.

Maggie Shackell swam to second place in the women's 50-metre backstroke, finishing just 5/100ths of a second back of winner Haley Wignall of Dal.

"Some of our rookies really stepped up and had much better races than from the beginning of the season, so that was encouraging to see," said Coach Belsh. 

In the women's 50-metre breaststroke, UNB's Maria McDougall was second, just 8/10ths of a second back of winner Lily MacLean of Dal.

"She's proving herself to be a jack-of-all-trades," said Belsh. "Anything she picks up, any race that we put her in, she's really shining and has the capabilities to step up and race it really well." 

The Tigers won 16 of Sunday's 18 events, with Kingston winning the other two.

Next up for the REDS, the AUS Championships, February 13-15, in St. John's.

WOMEN'S SCORES

Dalhousie                    1147.5

Mount Allison             692.5

UNB                             466

MEN'S SCORES

Dalhousie                    1129

UNB                             735

Mount Allison             453

COMBINED TEAM SCORES

Dalhousie                    2276.5

UNB                             1201

Mount Allison             1145.5

RECAP AND PHOTOS: Andy Campbell/UNB REDS