Every swimming club has a handful of meets marked on the calendar as top priorities each season.
They represent the racing that all the training is geared towards.
State and National Championships and the trials to make Australian sides for World Championships, Olympic, Pan Pacific and Commonwealth Games feature depending on the year.
At Bond University Swimming Club, the UniSport Nationals sit alongside these.
It explains why we have won the last three, and also why Olympic bronze medalist Max Giuliani, who joined Bond University on a Hancock Prospecting Swimming Excellence Scholarship last semester, will pull on a Bull Sharks cap this week.
Giuliani, who continues to train with his former coach, will represent Bond for the first time at the Sydney Olympic pool.
Director of Swimming Kyle Samuelson said student athletes in his program looked forward to the UniSport competition each year and they were excited to bring Giuliani into the squad for the event.
“UniSport Nationals are very important to us because it is the only chance we get to race as student athletes and it’s great that Max wants to experience that,” he said.
“The student-athlete experience is central to everything we do and we work hard on helping our swimmers find the balance between sport and academics.
“It is a tougher road than focusing solely on swimming, but at the end of it is a degree and a really solid foundation has been laid for life after sport.
“And UniSport Nationals gives us a chance to demonstrate we are doing that well, so we value that highly and we definitely go in with intentions to win.
“And I think the fact that we really target this is what separates us as a university swimming program.”
There will be a two-pronged attack by Bond swimmers in Sydney.
The student-athletes will compete for the university with the clear goal to claim a fourth consecutive UniSport National Championship.
The handful of other swimmers who are at the Bond Swim club for the coaching provided by Samuelson and coaches Chris Mooney and Zander Hey, such as former student Flynn Southam and rising high school stars Mikayla Bird and Ainsley Trotter, will also race.
They are not allowed to compete in relays and the points they earn don’t go towards Bond’s UniSport tally.
However, Samuelson says it is still a valuable experience and high-quality racing.
“Because we create the same environment for the squad that we would for say an Australian Championships, the non-students still get a lot out of it,” he said.