Hess leads the way for Horns at Canada West Championship

By Lethbridge Herald on November 28, 2022.

Herald FILE PHOTO The Horns’ Apollo Hess carves the water to a gold medal during the 200-meter breaststroke at the Canada West Championship on Sunday in this November 2022 file photo. Hess swam his way on to the Canadian Olympic team.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The Max Bell Aquatic Centre at the University of Lethbridge was electric all weekend for the Canada West Championship for swimming.

“I’m really proud of all our men’s and women’s teams on the performances from the weekend and how they raced at home,” said U of L  coach Peter Schori.

“I think one of the things that really shone through this weekend was how much of  a team sport swimming actually can be. And how much energy they drew from each other’s successes and from each other’s really great efforts that might not have been on the podium or even in the final. But there were a lot of inspiring swims across all three days.”

Second-year phenom Apollo Hess beat his own Canadian record in the 50-metre breaststroke on Friday with a time of 26.63 in the final.

“Apollo was awesome and I think in all sports you see that there are individuals that the team looks to for leadership,” said Schori.

“And leadership comes in a lot of different ways and Apollo provided that by inspiring everybody with his first-day swim and his Canadian record,and that lifts up our team. And then to Apollo’s great credit, he follows through on that and he set a Canada West record the next day in the 100-meter breaststroke.”

The Horns’ Chris Alexander won the silver medal in the 50-meter backstroke with a time of 24.53 and Tristan Bennett in the 50-metre breaststroke with a time of 27.74.

The second day saw Hess carve the pool to another gold in the 100-meter breaststroke with a time of 58.55, U of L’s Raine Arden won gold in the 200-meter freestyle, Alexander claimed bronze in the 50-meter freestyle (22.78) and the relay team of Arden, Hess, Alexander and Parker Brown winning silver in the 400-metre freestyle.

Brown, Alexander, Hess and Arden took home silver in the 400-meter medley  relay on the third day.

Hess won his third gold medal in the 200-meter breaststroke on day three and Alexander won silver in the 100-meter backstroke.

Hess won Canada West MVP ,Athlete of the Year  and Swimmer of the Meet, while Schori won Coach of the Year.

The University of the Thunderbirds women’s team and University of Calgary men’s team won the respective banners.