Matthew Brough became the first University of Regina swimmer ever to break the 50-second barrier in the 100-metre freestyle as the Cougars competed in the U SPORTS Swimming Championships over the weekend in Markham, Ont.
Brough's record swim came in the opening leg of the 400-metre freestyle relay on Thursday. He registered a time of 49.78 seconds, a personal best by exactly half a second and breaking the old U of R mark of 50.04 seconds which Brian Palaschuk had held since the 2019 U SPORTS meet.
"This was the last thing that Broughy wanted to check off his swimming bucket list before retirement, so we're all really happy for him," Cougars head coach
Baylee Munro said. "Going into this year, being the first Cougar to go under 50 seconds was his goal and we really specialized his training towards that. Performances like these are opening doors for the exciting rookies we've got coming through the program and we can't wait to see what lies ahead."
Brough also scored the lone individual points for the Cougars. He qualified for the C final in the 50-metre backstroke on Thursday and placed seventh, giving the U of R a pair of points in the team standings. Besides his record in the 100 free, Brough also had personal-best times in the prelims of both the 50 free (23.53) and 200 free (1:51.21).
The Cougars finished in 20th place in the team standings with a total of 35 points. Brough,
Isaac Currie,
Ethan Elliott, and
Ovesh Purahoo combined to score 33 points in the event's three relays.
Elliott also registered two personal-best performances in the prelims of the 100 free (51.44) and 200 free (1:53.91).
Sadie Anderson and
Chloe Hegi both participated in their first U SPORTS meet for the Cougars on the women's side. Both swimmers carded a pair of personal-best times including Anderson in both the 50 free (27.42) and 100 fly (1:03.41) and Hegi in the 200 free (2:05.77) and 200 IM (2:26.04).
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