Matthew Brough is starting his senior season off with a bucket-list competition.

The 5^th-year swimmer from Regina has qualified for the 2025 Swimming World Cup, which is being held in Toronto over the weekend.

He qualified for the meet by competing at Short Course Nationals in August, where he finished in the top 20 to earn his spot.

"That was sort of a goal of mine going into it," said Brough. "So, I was very happy that I got selected."

Brough has never competed internationally before and is looking forward to representing both the University of Regina and Canada on an international stage.

Although Brough is new to international competition, he has competed at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre, where the event is being held.

"I've been there before," said Brough. "It's a super nice pool and there have been a ton of world records and fast swimming."

Brough isn't wrong.

Just yesterday, Canadian swimmer Josh Liendo set a new short course world record in the 100m butterfly with a time of 47.68 seconds.

The World Cup will be Brough's first event of the 2025-26 season, so he is hoping to get a good start on what he hopes will be his best season yet.

"I'm looking to break some Cougar records this year," said Brough. "So having an international event this early in the season, leading into [Canada West Championships], that will be really big for me."

"I think that will give me a lot of momentum."

Brough will be competing in three events.

He will race in the 50m backstroke and 100m freestyle today, Oct. 24^th, and will swim the 100m backstroke on Saturday, Oct. 25^th.

Live coverage can be found at https://www.youtube.com/@CBCSports/streams.