EDMONTON - The defending Canada West men's and women's swimming champions, the UBC Thunderbirds, lead both standings after Day 1 of the conference championship hosted by the University of Alberta at the Kinsmen Sports Centre in Edmonton.
LIVE RESULTS
The Thunderbird women sit in first with 247 points, while the second place Calgary Dinos, who are the defending men's and women's CIS champions, has 191 points. The host Pandas sit in third with 161 points. On the men's side, UBC leads with 190 points; Alberta is second with 184 points and the Dinos round out the top three with 167 points.
UBC's 4x200m freestyle women's team, consisting of
Heather MacLean, Fionnula Pierse,
Brittney Harley and
Savannah King set a new Canada West record during their gold medal swim. Their time of 8:01.50 broke the mark of 8:01.69 set in 2009 by the Calgary Dinos.
The Victoria Vikes are fourth in the women's table with 79 points, and are followed by Manitoba (58), Lethbridge (45), Regina (44) and Trinity Western (6). The Pronghorns are in fourth place on the men's side with 103 points, followed by Victoria (88), Regina (47), Manitoba (41) and Trinity Western (11).
Just 10 finals took place on Day 1 with another 14 to be competed on Saturday between 5:00 and 7:30 pm. The meet will come to a close Sunday afternoon when the final 14 events will be swum. The CIS championship is February 23-25 at the University of Montreal.
UBC, Calgary and Alberta combined to capture 29 of the 30 medals handed out on Friday. Lethbridge Pronghorn swimmer Jeffrey Nichol won a bronze in the men's 50m breaststroke to break up the streak.
In the opening race, the women's 800m FS, UBC's
Savannah King claimed gold, while Breanna Hendricks of Calgary and Alberta's Dana Armstrong finished second and third respectively.
Fifth-year Golden Bears' swimmer Brian Yakiwchuk captured gold in the 1,500m FS, while teammate Scott Stewart picked up silver and Dino Andre Makosiej finished third.
In the 50m fly race, Alberta Panda Erin Miller, who swam four years for UBC before joining the U of A, picked up gold, while a pair of Thunderbirds,
Rebecca Terejko and
Grainne Pierse, claimed silver and bronze.
Tommy Gossland of UBC earned gold in the men's 50m fly with teammate
Kelly Aspinall in second and Alberta's Josh Au in third.
Pierse, originally from Edmonton and the Keyano Swim Club, swam to gold in the 50m backstroke, while fellow Thunderbird
Rachelle Salli picked up silver and Jessika Craig of Calgary earned bronze.
The Dinos took gold and bronze in the men's 50m backstroke with Gleb Savorov getting the top spot on the podium, and Mic Lowenstein getting bronze.
Craig Brazier picked up silver for the Dinos.
UBC swam to a podium sweep in the women's 50m breaststroke as
Tera Van Beilen, Terejko and
Martha McCabe finished 1-2-3.
Jason Block (Calgary), Stephen Giovanetto (Alberta) and Nicol picked the medals in the men's 50m breaststroke.
UBC captured gold in both the men's and women's 4x200m FS events, with Calgary earning silver in both and Alberta picking up bronze in both events.
Day two gets underway Saturday with preliminary races at 9 a.m. and finals get underway at 4 p.m.
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