A trio of Varsity Blues swimmers competed as members of Team Ontario this past weekend at the 2024 Luxembourg Euro Meet.

Veteran Blues swimmer Ainsley McMurray traveled overseas to compete at the annual event for a second year in a row, and was joined by third-year backstroke specialist Carter Buck and first-year standout Katie Schroeder.

"I have to thank Swim Ontario joining with us to make this tour possible as many swimmers from the OUA were selected along with our Blues," mentioned Varsity Blues swimming head coach Byron MacDonald. "Many of our swimmers are world caliber, and as such I try to find them some tougher international competitions to compete in. The meet in Luxembourg fits that bill with several Olympic medalists in attendance."

Competing across all three days of the event, McMurray earned a bronze medal alongside her Team Ontario teammates in the 4x100m mixed freestyle relay event. Individually, she also reached the A-Final of the women's 100m freestyle, placing ninth overall with a time of 55.70. McMurray additionally reached the B-Final races for both the women's 50m and 200m freestyle events.

"Ainsley has only gone faster than these times once in her life before," reflected MacDonald on her performance at last year's U SPORTS national championships. "Doing these times now in mid-season, under international travel and stress, bodes well for the championships later this month and in March."

Making the trip to Luxembourg for the first time, Buck reached A-Final races across all three days. The engineering student placed fifth in the men's 50m backstroke (26.48), sixth in the men's 100m backstroke (57.34), and sixth in the men's 200m backstroke (2:06.13). 

"This was Carter's first international tour and he swam brilliantly," added MacDonald. "Making three finals at the event was superb, and he is so organized to be able to keep up with his rigorous engineering studies while training and competing like this."

Rounding out the Blues at the Euro Meet, Schroeder achieved an impressive top result of fourth in the women's 200m backstroke on the final day of competition with a time of 2:16.86. The first-year Blues swimmer also added a eighth place finish in the women's 100m backstroke (1:03.56) and a 12th place finish in the women's 50m backstroke (30.24).

"Katie just missed a medal in her first trip to Europe which is an excellent result with all the changes associated with her moving from western Canada to Toronto for her first year of university," said MacDonald. "She will be a main presence come the championships."

Next up for the Blues is the OUA Championships, hosted by Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont. from Feb. 16-18.