Photo © 2007 Willie Pavlinec: Calgary’s Seanna Mitchell swims the anchor leg of the women’s 4 x 800m freestyle relay Friday night

CALGARY – As expected, both the men’s and women’s competitions at the 2007 Canada West Swimming Championships opened up as two-horse races between the nine-time defending CIS Champion UBC Thunderbirds and the Calgary Dinos. A jam-packed, boisterous University of Calgary Aquatic Centre witnessed fine swimming action Friday night, highlighted by Calgary’s upset victory in the women’s 4 x 200m freestyle relay along with a pair of new Canada West records in the women’s 50m events.

The women’s 4 x 200m freestyle relay began with the Dinos and T-Birds neck-and-neck through the first two legs. The penultimate leg had Calgary’s Alex Lys pitted against Carmen Block of UBC, and the Dinos opened with a slight lead. Block’s first 100m was excellent as she opened up a half-second lead, but Lys turned it up as Block faded and Calgary took a lead of 1.7 seconds into the anchor leg. There Seanna Mitchell fended off UBC’s highly-touted rookie Maya Beaudry, and Calgary won the event by nearly a second and a half.

“I knew we were ahead when I jumped in, and I tried not to get too excited when she caught me,” said a jubilant Lys. “I told myself to stay calm and stick to the strategy, and she (Block) started to fade.”

“Home pool advantage was huge for us tonight,” added Mitchell. “I always swim better when people are cheering for me.”

The Manitoba team of Julianne Toogood, Landice Yestrau, Lauren MacQuarrie, and Whitney Reed took the bronze medal in 8:41.79 after Victoria was disqualified when one swimmer jumped too early on the exchange.

The other scored event on the women’s side was the 800m freestyle, a test for swimmers as they battle the thin air in Calgary. That didn’t seem to stop UBC, however, as T-Bird swimmers posted the top four times in the event. Tara Ivanitz led the way, edging out teammate Brittany Cooper by 13 hundredths for the gold medal.

Featured Friday night were the 50m sprint events in the butterfly, backstroke, and breaststroke disciplines which do not count toward team totals. Two Conference records were broken in the sprints, starting with Calgary’s Erin Gammel in the backstroke. She broke her own Canada West record set in 2004 by more than half a second, finishing with a new mark of 28.12.

In the 50m breaststroke event, all three of the top finishers broke the old mark of 32.89, set in 2005 by Calgary’s Emma Spooner. Annamay Pierce of UBC led the way with a time of 32.24, three one-hundredths better than Calgary’s Liz Hendrick. Taylor Peterson, also of the Dinos, finished third in 32.59. Calgary and UBC claimed the top three spots in all three sprint disciplines on the women’s side.

Due to the strength of their top four in the 800m freestyle, the T-Birds lead the team standings after Day 1 with 113 points, followed by Calgary with 69.

Calgary and UBC swept the medals in the men’s 1500m freestyle, the marathon of CIS swimming. Sandy Lockhart of UBC took the gold in 15:56.45, well ahead of a pair of Michaels from Calgary, Driedger and Derban, who finished with silver and bronze. The men’s relay saw UBC hold off a surging Dinos squad, as the quartet of Brian Johns, Darryl Rudolf, Robert Miller, and Aaron Blair took gold in 7:23.06. Calgary finished just over a second and a half back after a gutsy anchor swim by Daniel Langlois. Third place Alberta finished more than 30 seconds back of the top two teams. The Dinos and T-Birds finished in the top three spots in all three of the 50m sprint disciplines as well.

On the men’s side, Calgary holds a slight lead on the Thunderbirds after one day at 89-84, while Alberta and Victoria are separated by a mere four points as they battle for third place in the team standings.

The Canada West Championships continue through Sunday. Saturday’s action will feature preliminaries at 10 am followed by finals beginning at 5 pm.

Team Standings
(after two events)

Women
1. UBC 113
2. Calgary 69
3. Alberta 39
4. Manitoba 37
5. Lethbridge 28
6. Victoria 27
7. Regina 26

Men
1. Calgary 89
2. UBC 84
3. Alberta 61
4. Victoria 57
5. Lethbridge 28
6. Manitoba 26
7. Regina 0