Skuriat, a 21-year-old native of Georgetown, Ont., is one of the veterans on the Acadia swim team. Now in her fourth year, she is one of seven Acadia swimmers to qualify to compete at the CIS championships Feb. 20-22 in Victoria, B.C. A total of eight – four women and four men – will make the trip.
“I’ve never qualified for CIS before,” Skuriat said. “I missed out by less than a second last year in the 800 freestyle.”
Skuriat qualified for the 2015 nationals in the 400 freestyle at an AUS Invitational meet at Dalhousie in late November, swimming the distance in 4:23.87.
“It’s a great way to cap off my competitive swimming career on a high note,” she said.
Teammates Rebecca MacPherson and Laura Beck, both first-year swimmers, qualified for CIS at the same meet. Emily Halajian, another first-year swimmer, qualified for nationals at the AUS championships, making it a quartet of women.
“Where four of us qualified, we can compete in relay events as well,” Skuriat said. “Where we already had three, we could have taken a fourth, like the men are, but it was nice to have all four of us qualify.”
The four Acadia women will have all four strokes in the medley relay covered, with Halajian swimming the butterfly, MacPherson the backstroke, Beck the breaststroke and Skuriat the anchor freestyle leg.
Luc Boudreau, who is competing at his fifth consecutive nationals, as well as Hayden Adams and Justin LeBlanc qualified on the men’s side, with Patrick Henger also attending CIS to allow Acadia to compete in the men’s relays.
“I’ll be swimming the 400 free at CIS, plus some other events, likely the 800 free, and I’ll be doing all the relays,” Skuriat said. “I’m really looking forward to it, and being able to swim ‘coast to coast’ in the same season.”
No plans to swim
Skuriat wasn’t originally recruited to swim for Acadia.
“I came to Acadia to study, because I really liked the university. A family friend had gone here, and always spoke very highly of Acadia,” she explained.
“When I was in Grade 11, I came and saw the campus. I know it sounds corny, but I fell in love with it at first sight, and decided this was where I wanted to be.”
At the same time, Skuriat had been swimming competitively since the age of eight, with the Halton Hills Blue Fins club.
“I originally came here as a kinesiology student, not a swimmer,” she said.
When she arrived, she asked then-coach Chris Stone if she could try out for the team.
“He said that wouldn’t be a problem, and it ended up working out well. I tried out, went to the first practice, made the team, and I’ve been a part of it ever since.”
Even though she hadn’t planned to be a varsity swimmer, it still wasn’t much of a stretch.
“I’ve always loved swimming, even before I started doing it competitively.”
Young program
The Acadia swim program, which had been resurrected in 2009, was still relatively new in the fall of 2011.
“It’s been great to be a part of the rebirth of swimming here at Acadia, and it’s amazing to see how much the team has grown and improved,” she said.
Skuriat acknowledged it was a shock when Stone left Acadia last summer, but the team was fortunate to get a great replacement in former Dal coach David Fry.
“When we heard David was hired, we were all really excited. He’s a great coach – a different style from Chris, but they’re both great, and know how to get the job done.”
The Acadia teams both placed second in the conference this season. A big part of the improvement was due to “a tremendous rookie class,” Skuriat said.
“With people like Rebecca (MacPherson), Laura (Beck), Cassandra (Parsons) and Allison (MacEachern) coming in, you knew the team was going to be improved.”
Other first-year swimmers like Halajian kept improving as the season went on.
“I predicted we’d be top-two in the conference,” Skuriat said. “Not everyone believed me, but we did it. It’s always nice to be able to achieve your goals.”
Honoured for community service
Skuriat received another recognition recently when she was named the winner of the AUS Student-Athlete Community Service Award for women’s swimming.
She is the third Acadia student-athlete to win the award this season, following in the footsteps of both Caoimhe McParland (women’s soccer) and Sean Stoqua (football).
“There’s such a great environment here for going out and giving back to the community that gives our athletics department so much support,” she said.
Of her many volunteer activities, she made special mention of the time she spends volunteering with the Valley Cardiac Rehab program, a satellite of which is operated on the Acadia campus. She’s put in close to 200 hours in the program to date.
She also got to spend time in Honduras with the Acadia chapter of the Global Medical Brigade.
“(It was) an amazing experience, very humbling. We provided medical and dental care to a community that wouldn’t otherwise have had access to it. We saw more than 1,000 patients in the four days we were there,” she said.
Some of the Acadia students who were part of the Honduras experience are planning to become doctors. Skuriat, on the other hand, has applied for entry to the two-year occupational therapy program at Dalhousie for next year.
She graduates from Acadia in May. While she hopes to make a splash at nationals, this will mark the end of competitive swimming for Skuriat.
“I’ll always swim, when this CIS meet is over, that’ll be it for my swimming career,” she said.
“This year has been pretty amazing. The team has been closer than ever, and I’ve been lucky to be a part of it.”
Skuriat, a 21-year-old native of Georgetown, Ont., is one of the veterans on the Acadia swim team. Now in her fourth year, she is one of seven Acadia swimmers to qualify to compete at the CIS championships Feb. 20-22 in Victoria, B.C. A total of eight – four women and four men – will make the trip.
“I’ve never qualified for CIS before,” Skuriat said. “I missed out by less than a second last year in the 800 freestyle.”
Skuriat qualified for the 2015 nationals in the 400 freestyle at an AUS Invitational meet at Dalhousie in late November, swimming the distance in 4:23.87.
“It’s a great way to cap off my competitive swimming career on a high note,” she said.
Teammates Rebecca MacPherson and Laura Beck, both first-year swimmers, qualified for CIS at the same meet. Emily Halajian, another first-year swimmer, qualified for nationals at the AUS championships, making it a quartet of women.
“Where four of us qualified, we can compete in relay events as well,” Skuriat said. “Where we already had three, we could have taken a fourth, like the men are, but it was nice to have all four of us qualify.”
The four Acadia women will have all four strokes in the medley relay covered, with Halajian swimming the butterfly, MacPherson the backstroke, Beck the breaststroke and Skuriat the anchor freestyle leg.
Luc Boudreau, who is competing at his fifth consecutive nationals, as well as Hayden Adams and Justin LeBlanc qualified on the men’s side, with Patrick Henger also attending CIS to allow Acadia to compete in the men’s relays.
“I’ll be swimming the 400 free at CIS, plus some other events, likely the 800 free, and I’ll be doing all the relays,” Skuriat said. “I’m really looking forward to it, and being able to swim ‘coast to coast’ in the same season.”
No plans to swim
Skuriat wasn’t originally recruited to swim for Acadia.
“I came to Acadia to study, because I really liked the university. A family friend had gone here, and always spoke very highly of Acadia,” she explained.
“When I was in Grade 11, I came and saw the campus. I know it sounds corny, but I fell in love with it at first sight, and decided this was where I wanted to be.”
At the same time, Skuriat had been swimming competitively since the age of eight, with the Halton Hills Blue Fins club.
“I originally came here as a kinesiology student, not a swimmer,” she said.
When she arrived, she asked then-coach Chris Stone if she could try out for the team.
“He said that wouldn’t be a problem, and it ended up working out well. I tried out, went to the first practice, made the team, and I’ve been a part of it ever since.”
Even though she hadn’t planned to be a varsity swimmer, it still wasn’t much of a stretch.
“I’ve always loved swimming, even before I started doing it competitively.”
Young program
The Acadia swim program, which had been resurrected in 2009, was still relatively new in the fall of 2011.
“It’s been great to be a part of the rebirth of swimming here at Acadia, and it’s amazing to see how much the team has grown and improved,” she said.
Skuriat acknowledged it was a shock when Stone left Acadia last summer, but the team was fortunate to get a great replacement in former Dal coach David Fry.
“When we heard David was hired, we were all really excited. He’s a great coach – a different style from Chris, but they’re both great, and know how to get the job done.”
The Acadia teams both placed second in the conference this season. A big part of the improvement was due to “a tremendous rookie class,” Skuriat said.
“With people like Rebecca (MacPherson), Laura (Beck), Cassandra (Parsons) and Allison (MacEachern) coming in, you knew the team was going to be improved.”
Other first-year swimmers like Halajian kept improving as the season went on.
“I predicted we’d be top-two in the conference,” Skuriat said. “Not everyone believed me, but we did it. It’s always nice to be able to achieve your goals.”
Honoured for community service
Skuriat received another recognition recently when she was named the winner of the AUS Student-Athlete Community Service Award for women’s swimming.
She is the third Acadia student-athlete to win the award this season, following in the footsteps of both Caoimhe McParland (women’s soccer) and Sean Stoqua (football).
“There’s such a great environment here for going out and giving back to the community that gives our athletics department so much support,” she said.
Of her many volunteer activities, she made special mention of the time she spends volunteering with the Valley Cardiac Rehab program, a satellite of which is operated on the Acadia campus. She’s put in close to 200 hours in the program to date.
She also got to spend time in Honduras with the Acadia chapter of the Global Medical Brigade.
“(It was) an amazing experience, very humbling. We provided medical and dental care to a community that wouldn’t otherwise have had access to it. We saw more than 1,000 patients in the four days we were there,” she said.
Some of the Acadia students who were part of the Honduras experience are planning to become doctors. Skuriat, on the other hand, has applied for entry to the two-year occupational therapy program at Dalhousie for next year.
She graduates from Acadia in May. While she hopes to make a splash at nationals, this will mark the end of competitive swimming for Skuriat.
“I’ll always swim, when this CIS meet is over, that’ll be it for my swimming career,” she said.
“This year has been pretty amazing. The team has been closer than ever, and I’ve been lucky to be a part of it.”
