April 3, 2015 TORONTO -- Samantha Corea (Vancouver, British Columbia) continued her excellent swimming at the Canadian Nationals on Friday by posting a third place result in the 100-meter butterfly. The University of Denver senior entered the event as the number nine seed at 1:01.22 and finished fourth in the preliminaries at 59.46. In the finals, she turned in a 58.83 effort, a 2.39 second improvement on her lifetime best.
"Our athletes were racing well and our goal was to make finals swims, which they all did," said Denver head coach Brian Schrader. "Seeing Sam win her first national title was a great moment, and her 100 Butterfly was a breakthrough swim for her, great to see :58 on the scoreboard. Â It was important for her to make a national team to continue training for her Olympic dream, and hopefully she will qualify for carding (funding) based on that performance from Canada Swimming." Â
Corea's efforts earned place on the Canadian team that will compete at the World University Games in South Korea this summer.
Meanwhile, Denver junior Andrew Torres (Arvada, Colo.), representing Puerto Rico, swam Friday in the 100-meter butterfly, finishing 13th overall in the event. Since non-Canadian athletes are not allowed to advance to the finals, he finished with a time of 54.17 in the B final which would have placed him fifth overall. His time is a FINA B cut for the Pan American Games and he has the A already in the 200-meter fly. The Puerto Rican team is in Toronto preparing for the Pan American Games which will be held in the same facility.
Torres raced in the 200 fly on Saturday as the number two seed and finished 2nd in the B final with a time of 2:02.57.
Another Denver athlete Tyra Rooney (Calgary, Alberta) competed in the 800-meter freestyle on Saturday and placed 14th with a time of 9:05.51. Rooney, a junior, also turned in a stellar performance at the Canadian Nationals, finishing in fifth place in the mile on Wednesday night.
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