MAC Spring Invitational 2025 Meet Review
On May 14, four Crusaders - Idan Arie (Senior), Leon Bautista (Senior), Luke Ellis (Senior), Nadav Arie (Junior) - flew to Markham, Ontario, for the annual MAC Spring Invitational.
The meet was held from May 15 to 18 at the Markham Pan Am Center and featured 23 teams,with most from Ontario, and four Nova Scotia teams. Our swimmers experienced a large-scale meet of almost 1000 swimmers competing in a 10-lane 50-meter pool, with many fast swimmers in every event. The way this meet is run – swimmers start from both ends of the pool, and new heats start at one end as the previous heat is finishing at the other – is quite different from local meets and requires a swimmer to be aware of which end they are starting from. All in all, this meet was a wonderful opportunity for our swimmers to measure themselves against strong competitors and gain valuable experience competing outside of the Atlantic Provinces.
Idan dropped 11 seconds in his 800 Free, finishing 12th. He improved his 50 Breast to 31.42, placing 6th overall, and dropped almost two seconds in the 100 Fly, swimming a 1:01.47 and coming 5th in the B Final. Leon experienced slight improvements in both the 100 and 800 Free. He also finished 5th in the 200 Fly B Final. Luke did particularly well, placing 5th in the 200 Breast and improving his time by more than 3 seconds. He came 7th in the 100 Breast with a PB, and placed 10th (400 Free), 11th (400 IM) and 13th (200 IM). Nadav turned 13, the entry age, on the first day of the meet, so he was grouped with many fast 13-14-year-old boys. While he did not place in any finals, he did enjoy PBs in the 800 Free (dropped 8 seconds, 10:54), 200 IM, and 200 Fly (dropped 10 seconds, 2:53). Our four boys entered three relays, with respectable showings: 6th in the 13 & Over 200 Free Relay, 6th in the 13 & Over 400 Free Relay, and 8th in the 13 & Over 200 IM Relay.
Tracy Kwan and Leah Ellis accompanied the swimmers, driving them to and from the pool and making the trip possible. Big thanks to them! Hopefully, more of our swimmers can enjoy this meet next year.