VANCOUVER, B.C. – Both Thunderbird squads had some quality performances on the first of two days of the 2026 University Cup Pacific, and both sit in first place at the halfway point of the meet ahead of the Calgary Dinos and Swim BC All-Stars.
The UBC men had particularly strong results, earning an incredible 22 podium placements across 11 events. Jaques Harrison led the way in the individual events with a pair of first-place finishes, while Yuri Kisil and Kai Lilienthal both topped the podium three times when you include the relay races.
"We knew coming in that our men were looking very strong. They're healthy, they're working hard, they're doing everything they need to do to swim fast and we knew that they were going to be tough to beat," said UBC head coach Derrick Schoof. "Our women, on the other hand, it's a bit of a rebuilding year and we've had to deal with a bit of illness and injury…the last thing we want to do right now at this point of the season is aggravate an injury or swim someone who might be a little sick."
While the UBC women had "only" 10 podium finishes on the night, that tally included multiple meet records. Kayla Sanchez got that going in the morning preliminaries, breaking the meet record in the Women's 100m Medley (58.67 seconds), before later taking first-place in the finals by a full four seconds. That performance in the finals came shortly after she'd also broken the meet record in the 100m Freestyle (52.03).
Second in the 100m Freestyle was Bridget Burton (54.37), and the Mill Bay native soon stole the show herself with a meet record in the 100m Backstroke (57.29), finishing ahead of teammate Piper Mitchell (59.74).
"Bridget and Kayla had outstanding performances today," added Schoof. "Bridget came into tonight with some fire in the belly, and surprised the heck out of herself. When she saw that clock she was like, 'wow that was great', and for her to get a meet record is awesome. Kayla, of course, is a seasoned veteran…she's showing her diversity and being able to do more than just the freestyle events."
Elsewhere on the women's side, Sela Wist took second in the 50m Butterfly (27.18), while Kyah De Mitri claimed second in the 200m Breaststroke (2:29.50), followed right after by Amaris Peng (2:30.93).
The T-Bird men had at least one swimmer on the podium for each event on Saturday night. That included four full sweeps, with Harrison (52.47), Wells Ginzer (54.62), and Joran Orogo (54.99) taking the 100m Backstroke, and Sebastian van de Logt (2:12.36), Tanner Cole (2:12.87), and Ian Wu (2:13.96) sweeping the 200m Breaststroke.
The 100m and 400m Freestyle events had even more Thunderbird dominance, with the run of T-Birds at the top of the races stretching even past third. Aiden Kirk (3:48.96), Zachary Parise (3:49.98), Noah Weaver (3:52.22) and Paul Hebrard (3:53.58) took the top four spots in the 400m, while UBC went one-through-five in the 100m with Kisil (49.19), Jake Gaunt (49.34), Lilienthal (49.45), Parise (49.67) and Hebrard (50.02).
Danny Park claimed first place in the 200m Butterfly (1:55.75), ahead of Kirk in second (1:57.15). Lilienthal did the same in the 50m Butterfly (23.12), followed closely by Frank Ho (23.88). Andrew Coombs placed second in the 100m Medley (56.55), van de Logt third in the 50m Breaststroke (27.86), and Cole (4:16.66) second behind Harrison (4:13.37) in the 400m Medley.
The T-Birds won three of the four relay races by at least two seconds, with the exception being the Women's 4x50m Medley. The team of Burton, Sanchez, Wist and Ruby Kehler finished with a time of 1:49.25, less than half a second ahead of the Dinos.
Kehler, Sanchez, Burton and Julia Norman won the 4x100m Freestyle at the end of the night (3:40.41), while the men's teams of Ho, van de Logt, Lilienthal and Kisil (1:36.51), and Kisil, Gaunt, Lilienthal and Parise (3:18.21) won the Men's 4x50m Medley and 4x100m Freestyle, respectively.
The University Cup Pacific concludes Sunday, with the Thunderbirds aiming to continue their fine form and claim victory in their first major meet of the season.
