Just call him Dr. Swim
Jan. 22, 2010 - Regina Leader-Post
By Ian Hamilton
Robert Ennis is back in the swim of things.
Ennis, who's in his first season of CIS eligibility with the University of Regina Cougars, took a year off from competitive swimming after graduating from LeBoldus High School. Having returned to the pool, he's a different man.
"Now that I've gone back, I've improved exponentially," the 20-year-old Regina product said Thursday. "I'm older, smarter and more developed."
"The improvement he made in that year is mind-boggling," added Cougars head coach Jeff Toth. "The change is just astronomical. He brought a whole new attitude to his swimming and has dropped time continuously.
"He's like a scientist of the sport now. He looks for ways to drop time."
Ennis is to swim in five events at the Canada West championships, which are set for today and Saturday in Lethbridge. He's entered in the 100-metre freestyle, 100m breaststroke, and the 50m, 100m and 200m butterfly.
Three other Cougars are to swim in the meet. They are: Linda Duarte (entered in the 50m, 100m and 200m butterfly, 50m and 100m breaststroke, and 100m freestyle; she'll have to drop one, since an athlete's maximum number of events is five), Maggi Pettit (50m and 100m freestyle, 50m butterfly and 50m backstroke) and Hector Fukushi (50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke, 200m freestyle and 200m individual medley).
Ennis' best events are the 100m and 200m butterfly. Toth believes Ennis can cut three seconds off his personal-best time in the 200m in Lethbridge, which would enable him to meet the standard for the CIS championship.
"I'm really looking to get my CI times this weekend so I can go to CI's," Ennis said. "It's very realistic. I've been training a lot faster than (those times)."
Ennis started swimming when he was six years old with the Regina Optimist Dolphins' junior club. He swam with the Dolphins through high school before deciding to take a year off.
"I didn't really know what I wanted to do," said Ennis, who went to work as a computer pneumatic controller at Pro-Metal Industries. "I wasn't ready to go to school. As it turns out, (taking that year off) was probably the best thing I ever did. Now I know what I really want to do."
Career-wise, he'd like to be a mechanical engineer. Right now, though, he wants to be a student-athlete.
"When I was working, I wasn't able to fit swimming into my schedule," he said. "With a full-time job, it just didn't work. Going back to school, I thought it was a good opportunity to get back in (to competitive swimming). Once I got back in, I realized I really liked it again.
"That year off was good because it gave me perspective. I enjoy (swimming) a lot more now."
The Canada West championships are to be Ennis' second meet of the season with the Cougars. He and his teammates were at a training camp at the University of Hawaii over the Christmas break, and Ennis suggested he's swimming faster than ever.
That will serve him well in his inaugural conference championship.
"We go to a lot of new places all the time," Ennis said when asked if he was apprehensive entering his first Canada West meet. "We're always adjusting to new pools and different surroundings. I'm not worried about it."