LOUGHBOROUGH, England – Golden Hawks swimmer Kent Goni Avila is preparing to make a splash across the pond.  

Goni Avila was named to the 40-swimmer roster for the inaugural Canada-Great Britain University Dual Meet in Loughborough, England, which starts Thursday and wraps up Friday. The two-day event will be covered on Instagram and livestreamed on YouTube with races beginning at 12pm EST (5pm local).   

Goni Avila was selected among the medalists at the 2025 U SPORTS swimming championships held in March of this year. At the event hosted by the Toronto Varsity Blues, the three-time OUA all-star became the first Laurier men's swimmer to win an individual medal at the national championships in 25 years with a bronze in the 200m individual medley (IM). 

The four-time Laurier swim team MVP is among 13 OUA student-athletes selected overall and one of nine swimmers representing the conference on the men's side. He will compete in the 200m IM along with McGill's Loic Courville-Fortin.  

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The individual medley consists of four strokes in the following order: butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle.  

The Canadian university team has one of the best swimmers in each category in Goni Avila. Over the 2024-25 invitational swim season, Goni Avila could always be found on the podium holding down the top spot.  

He set two meet records at the Dean Boles Divisional Championships in the 50m backstroke (25.42) and 100m breaststroke (1:01.35).  

Goni Avila has only competed in the 200m IM three times this season, but each of them landed him a medal. At the Divisional Championships, he placed first with a time of 2:03.47, and again at the OUA Championships in 2:00.26.  

His bronze medal finish at the national championships was his season best at 1:58.07, and was four seconds shy of setting the U SPORTS record. From his first to last IM races, Goni Avila shaved off 5.40 seconds. 
 

MEN'S ROSTER 

Joel Blanco                   UBC                              Maple Ridge, BC 

Garrett Brendzan          Alberta                         Edmonton, AB 

Albert Bouley                Toronto                        Toronto, ON 

Tanner Cole                  UBC                              Edmonton, AB 

Loïc Courville-Fortin      McGill                        Repentigny, QC 

Bill Dongfang                Toronto                        Victoria, BC 

Nicholas Duncan           Calgary                         Calgary, AB 

Wells Ginzer                 UBC                              Heritage Point, AB 

Kent Goni Avila             Laurier                          Richmond Hill, ON 

Andrew Herman            Toronto                        Redondo Beach, California 

Kai Lilienthal                 UBC                              Sydney, Australia 

Quinn Matteis               Toronto                        Chatham, ON 

Thomas McDonald        Calgary                         Elora, ON 

Justice Migneault          UBC                              Port Coquitlam, BC 

Stephen Moore             Calgary                         Salmon Arm, BC 

Hunter Payne                Calgary                         Brantford, ON 

Olivier Risk                   UBC                              Ottawa, ON 

Michael Sava                Toronto                        Toronto, ON 

Charlie Skalenda           Calgary                         Toronto, ON 

Luke Stewart-Beinder    Western                       Maple Ridge, BC 

Nathan Thomas             Toronto                        Pointe-Claire, QC 

Ben Winterborn            Toronto                        Kingston, ON