Modrcin has medals on her mind

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This article was published 23/11/2022 (1359 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dora Modrcin has been here before — four times to be exact. This week’s meet, however, could prove to be the most significant outing for the veteran swimmer.

Modrcin, 23, and the University of Manitoba Bisons swim team will race in the Canada West Championships in Lethbridge against nine other schools in the conference from Friday through Sunday.

The Bisons, guided by coach Vlastimil Cerny and led by the women’s team, are poised for a successful outing. The 12-person roster is ranked sixth in the country and has earned some much-needed rest after a fifth-place showing at the College Cup in Vancouver earlier this month, where they won five medals.

Modrcin, the program’s most experienced swimmer, was responsible for two medals — gold in 50-metre backstroke and silver in 50-metre butterfly — and stands as the country’s top-ranked butterfly and backstroke sprint specialist.

This week will be bittersweet for the fifth-year veteran, however, as it’s the last time she’ll compete at this meet.

“Part of me is excited, just because it’s the sixth year of my undergrad (degree). But I’ve really enjoyed competing with Bisons. I love the team, I really enjoy having Vlastimil and Craig (McCormick) as coaches and this is my 16th year as a competitive swimmer. That’s all I’ve ever really done as a sport. So it’s a little bit scary,” she said.

“This team has been a huge part of my life. Now it’s definitely a little bit scary just because I’m not used to not having swimming in my life.”

Modrcin will move to Calgary next year to attain a master’s degree in engineering with a focus on stem cell research. She’ll leave the program as one of its most accomplished swimmers, having won 11 medals in the CanWest Championships alone. She started in her freshman year at this very tournament.

“I just remember being really excited — my first big varsity meet,” she said of the 2017 CanWest Championships. “And it was also my birthday. So I was just excited to race and I was turning 18, and in my first backstroke event, I got bronze. I was not expecting to get a medal.”

On the last day of the meet, Modrcin captured another bronze medal in backstroke, firmly branding her name on the U Sports map for years to come.

“Being one of the youngest swimmers there, that was not an expectation, so I was just really enjoying racing at that meet. I have really fond memories of my first CanWest,” she said.

“Obviously I’m hoping to defend (my gold medal in 50-metre backstroke), but I’ve also struggled mentally with my 100-metre (backstroke). So my goal for that race is to just enjoy it and hopefully go best time.”

Modrcin will also compete in the 50 and 100-metre fly events this week.

The sentimental feeling resonates with Megan Mozill, who will also compete in her last CanWest Championship.

Mozill, in her third year of eligibility, transferred to the Bisons program from the University of Alberta at the height of the pandemic. Under the tutelage of Cerny, she’s developed into a top swimmer in the 200-metre backstroke, and a top-five athlete in the 100-metre backstroke.

This week she’ll compete in the 50, 100 and 200-metre backstroke and 50-metre freestyle.

“I’m definitely super-excited that it’s my third time going but I’m also a little sad that’s gonna be my last one,” she said. “The excitement outweighs the sadness.

“Going into it, I think the team is in a really great spot, especially the women’s teams. So we’re definitely looking to keep our ranking, if not climb the rankings a bit more. Especially coming out of our College Cup… we’re definitely looking good, and the fact that we’re a little more rested now, I think it’ll be a really great meet for everyone.”

While the University of British Columbia is the overwhelming favourite entering the Western Canada meet, Cerny has high hopes for this squad. A good showing this week will go a long way toward securing a spot in the U Sports Championships in Victoria at the end of February.

“Certainly, the women are a stronger team,” said Cerny, in his 30th season as the Bisons coach. “We’re expecting good results from them overall. We have some good relays that we can put together, our freestyle relay is strong.

“I don’t look at placing as much as, ‘Is everybody going to swim up to their potential at the meet?’ And that always seems to be the gauge of the overall performance. Obviously, the higher we rank, the better it looks. But the focus is individual performance and everybody firing as well as they can be based on where they are at and what their training has been.”

Cerny credited his team captains — Kelsey Fillion, Meagan Mozill and Carson Beggs — for improving the program’s culture this year.

“They really stepped up their game in terms of team spirit and some of the things that we need in order to create an environment. Competing is stressful for everyone and creating an environment where people want to be here, they want to put things on the line and have fun doing it, is very important.”

Beggs spearheads a small and young men’s program that is looking to show it belongs among the country’s best.

The men’s team, made up of five athletes, will send four swimmers to this week’s event — one first-year, two second-years and Beggs, in his third year of eligibility.

“We’re just looking to swim fast and that’s what we’re lined up to do,” Beggs said.

“For myself, it’s keeping that composure — not getting overly excited or overly stressed. It’s keeping the composure, getting prepared, having a plan and being able to adjust that plan on the fly with the things that I’ve been working on for the past couple of months. All the hard work that we put in prior to the meet, you just got to trust that the process has been there and you’ve done the work and you’re just going to go show what you’ve got.”

Beggs, a breaststroke specialist, will compete in the 50, 100 and 200-metre events and 50-metre freestyle this week.

Modrcin finished by noting how proud she is to have been a part of the growth of the Bisons swim program. In Modrcin’s first year, she explained, she and Kelsey Wog were the only two to qualify for the U Sports Championships. Last year, the Bisons sent six women to the national meet, finishing fifth in the country.

“We were beating out teams with full rosters of 16 girls, so just watching the development of the team from my first year to this year and just seeing how hard the team works, it’s been really great to see, because I know how much Vlastimil cares about all the teammates,” Modrcin said. “He really wants to help us grow so just seeing the program grown along with that it’s really nice to see.

“I think everybody’s been training really well so I think we’ll see a lot of best times. And Lethbridge — not the most exciting location,” she said while pausing to laugh. “But I have been there before, the pool is pretty nice, so it should be a good racing opportunity.”

jfreysam@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jfreysam