Ben Matchett, Dinos Communications
CALGARY – The UBC Thunderbirds men and women swept the conference team banners for the sixth consecutive season as the 2018-19 Canada West Swimming Championships wrapped up Sunday at the University of Calgary Aquatic Centre.
The UBC women won their 10th consecutive title running away, outscoring the second-place Calgary Dinos by 274 with 969 points over the three-day event. The men’s race was closer, with the Thunderbirds scoring 800 points to defeat the second-place Dinos by 98.5. Alberta, Victoria, and Manitoba rounded out the top five team finishers in women’s action, while Victoria, Alberta, and Regina followed UBC and Calgary in the men’s team standings.
“Coming into Calgary is a really really hard place to race, it’s historically known for that,” said UBC head coach Steve Price. “So for our kids to come in here and step up and do the job they did, we’re really proud of them. There was a lot of good swims, but I’m particularly proud of how our rookies managed themselves throughout the course of the weekend because it’s not easy.
“The strength of this conference went up this weekend and that’s really good for our league. There’s no easy wins in this conference so I’m pretty proud of that as well."
UBC’s Markus Thormeyer and Manitoba’s Kelsey Wog earned the top individual honours of Swimmer of the Meet. Thormeyer’s performances in the 200-metre freestyle and the 400-metre individual medley scored a total of 1,597 FINA points, while wog had four of the five top swims at the meet on the women’s side, highlighted by performances in the 200-metre breaststroke and the 200-metre freestyle that earned her a whopping 1,673 FINA points.
Rookie of the year honours went to Calgary’s Marit Anderson, who won the 400-metre freestyle gold medal, along with UBC’s Alexander Pratt – who took silver in both the 100- and 200-metre freestyle events.
“I felt good going into the weekend but I didn’t think I was going to do as good as I did,” said Anderson. “I’ve put in a lot of hard training, so I’m pleased with my results.”
UBC’s Price is the Canada West coach of the year for both men’s and women’s teams, while the student-athlete community service awards went to Victoria’s Taylor Snowden-Richardson and Lethbridge’s Owen Guyn.
Two more Canada West records fell on the final day of the competition, bringing the meet total to five. In the women’s 100 free, UBC’s Hoi Lam Tam picked up her second new conference mark with her gold-medal swim of 54.44 seconds, edging Erika Seltenreich-Hodgson’s one-year-old record by four hundredths. Later in the program, Wog put up the best swim of the entire meet with her time of 2:22.28 in the 200-metre breaststroke, breaking a six-year-old Martha McCabe record by 12 hundredths.
Tam and Calgary’s Steven Calkins both swept the sprint freestyle events of 50 and 100 metres, with Calkins out-touching Pratt by nearly a second in Sunday’s 100-metre final to finish with a time of 48.47 seconds.
In the final event of the meet, the men’s 4x100-metre medley relay, the Dinos were able to keep UBC from sweeping the six relay gold medals as the quartet of Robert Hill, Benjamin Blackmon, Stephen Calkins, and Parry Chirakorn brought home gold for the home team, beating out the Thunderbirds by just under half a second.
Other notable swims Sunday included UBC’s Ingrid Wilm in the 100-metre backstroke with a time of 58.69, while Victoria’s Eric Hedlin and Calgary’s Peter Brothers went stroke-for-stroke down the stretch in the men’s 400-metre freestyle, with Hedlin taking gold by just six hundredths.
With the conference championships behind them, the teams will move to preparations for the U SPORTS national championships, which UBC will host in Vancouver Feb. 21-23, 2019.
TEAM STANDINGS (FINAL)
WOMEN
1. UBC, 969 pts.
2. Calgary, 695
3. Alberta, 399
4. Victoria, 388
5. Manitoba, 264
6. Regina, 212
7. Lethbridge, 151
8. Thompson Rivers, 11
MEN
1. UBC, 800 pts.
2. Calgary, 701.5
3. Victoria, 483
4. Alberta, 341
5. Regina, 333
6. Lethbridge, 308
7. Manitoba, 141.5
8. Thompson Rivers, 13
2018-19 CANADA WEST SWIMMING AWARDS
Swimmers of the Meet
Women: Kelsey Wog, Manitoba
Men: Markus Thormeyer, UBC
Rookies of the Meet
Women: Marit Anderson, Calgary
Men: Alexander Pratt, UBC
Student-Athlete Community Service
Women: Taylor Snowden-Richardson, Victoria
Men: Owen Guyn, Lethbridge
Coach of the Year
Women: Steve Price, UBC
Men: Steve Price, UBC
DAY 3 MEDALLISTS
Women’s 200-metre butterfly
1. Danielle Hanus, Victoria (2:11.01)
2. Jacomie Strydom, UBC (2:16.46)
3. Kirsten Douglas, UBC (2:17.63)
Men’s 200-metre butterfly
1. Dmitriy Lim, UBC (2:01.00)
2. Connor Wilkins, UBC (2:01.47)
3. Etienne Paquin-Foisy, Regina (2:01.64)
Women’s 100-metre freestyle
1. Hoi Lam Tam, UBC (54.44) *Canada West Record
2. Quincy Brozo, UBC (55.28)
3. Mackenzie Gunther, UBC (56.28)
Men’s 100-metre freestyle
1. Stephen Calkins, Calgary (48.47)
2. Alexander Pratt, UBC (49.44)
3. Parry Chirakorn, Calgary (50.49)
Women’s 200-metre individual medley
1. Maia Brundage, UBC (2:14.60)
2. Hilary Metcalfe, UBC (2:15.02)
3. Rachael Anderson, UBC (2:17.51)
Men’s 200-metre individual medley
1. Robert Hill, Calgary (2:00.69)
2. Josh Zakala, Victoria (2:01.94)
3.Araya Therrien, UBC (2:02.91)
Women’s 100-metre backstroke
1.Ingrid Wilm, UBC, (58.69)
2. Danielle Hanus, Victoria (58.82)
3. Olivia Ellard, UBC (1:00.72)
Men’s 100-metre backstroke
1. Nicolas Duke, UBC (54.42)
2. Anders Klein, Calgary (54.72)
3. Robert Hill, Calgary (54.78)
Women’s 200-metre breaststroke
1. Kelsey Wog, Manitoba (2:22.28) *Canada West Record
2.Renae Ledoux, Alberta (2:27.89)
3. Bree Crookshanks, Regina (2:29.99)
Men’s 200-metre breaststroke
1. Jaren LeFranc, UBC (2:12.56)
2. Benjamin Blackmon, Calgary (2:14.52)
3. Bailey Espersen, Victoria (2:17.26)
Women’s 400-metre freestyle
1. Marit Anderson, Calgary (4:11.08)
2. Maia Brundage, UBC (4:15.29)
3. Meredith Levorson, UBC (4:17.87)
Men’s 400-metre freestyle
1. Eric Hedlin, Victoria (3:51.96)
2. Peter Brothers, Calgary (3:52.92)
3. Etienne Paquin-Foisy, Regina (3:55.11)
Women’s 4x100 medley relay
1. UBC (4:04.68) – Ingrid Wilm, Hillary Metcalfe, Jacomie Strydom, Hoi Lam Tam
2. Victoria (4:12.65) – Danielle Hanus, Jamie Hellard, Allison Ballantyne, Kaitlin Gervais
3. Calgary (4:14.26) – Sydney Glover, Ana Kolaric, Helena Neise, Marit Anderson
Men’s 4x100 medley relay
1. Calgary (3:40.35) – Robert Hill, Benjamin Blackmon, Stephen Calkins, Parry Chirakorn
2. UBC (3:40.80) – Nicolas Duke, Jaren LeFranc, Connor Wilkins, Araya Therrien
3. Victoria (3:42.91) – Josh Zakala, Bailey Espersen, Ethan Jensen, Buzz Mallender
DAY 2 MEDALLISTS
Women’s 50-metre freestyle
1. Hoi Lam Tam, UBC (25.12) *Canada West record
2. Quincy Bronzo, UBC (25.58)
3. Mackenzie Gunther, UBC (26.04)
Men’s 50-metre freestyle
1. Stephen Calkins, Calgary (22.58)
2. Owen Guyn, Lethbridge (22.74)
3. Alex Loginov, UBC (22.79)
Women’s 400-metre individual medley
1. Emily Overholt, UBC (4:39.77)
2. Megan Dalke, UBC (4:44.56)
3. Maia Brundage, UBC (4:44.89)
Men’s 400-metre individual medley
1. Markus Thormeyer, UBC (4:16.46)
2. Robert Hill, Calgary (4:18.06)
3. Josh Zakala, Victoria (4:22.11)
Women’s 100-metre butterfly
1. Danielle Hanus, Victoria (58.89) *Canada West record
2. Hoi Lam Tam, UBC (1:00.39)
3. Jacomie Strydom, UBC (1:00.71)
Men’s 100-metre butterfly
1. Josiah Binnema, UBC (53.04)
2. Stephen Calkins, Calgary (54.58)
3. Araya Therrien, UBC (55.11)
Women’s 200-metre backstroke
1. Ingrid Wilm, UBC (2:08.15)
2. Olivia Ellard, UBC (2:08.41)
3. Marit Anderson, Calgary (2:13.94)
Men’s 200-metre backstroke
1. Josiah Binnema, UBC (1:56.42)
2. Nicolas Duke, UBC (1:58.86)
3. Anders Klein, Calgary (1:59.91)
Women’s 100-metre breaststroke
1. Kelsey Wog, Manitoba (1:06.44)
2. Madalyn Smith, Alberta (1:07.38)
3. Renae Ledoux, Alberta (1:07.62)
Men’s 100-metre breaststroke
1. Jaren LeFranc, UBC (1:01.72)
2. Benjamin Blackmon, Calgary (1:02.76)
3. Ruishen Yu, UBC (1:02.87)
Women’s 200-metre freestyle
1. Kelsey Wog, Manitoba (1:57.64)
2. Emily Overholt, UBC (1:59.79)
3. Maia Brundage, UBC (1:59.80)
Men’s 200-metre freestyle
1. Markus Thormeyer, UBC (1:46.00)
2. Alexander Pratt, UBC (1:48.85)
3. Peter Brothers, Calgary (1:49.84)
Women’s 4x100-metre freestyle relay
1. UBC (3:42.47) – Hoi Lam Tam, Quincy Brozo, Maia Brundage, Mackenzie Gunther
2. Calgary (3:48.51) – Ana Kolaric, Julia Soutter, Helena Neise, Marit Anderson
3. Victoria (3:48.72) – Danielle Hanus, Lauren Taylor, Allison Ballantyne, Kaitlin Gervais
Men’s 4x100-metre freestyle relay
1. UBC (3:17.99) – Josiah Binnema, Alexander Pratt, Araya Therrien, Markus Thormeyer
2. Calgary (3:19.47) – Stephen Calkins, Parry Chirakon, Paul Latkovic, Peter Brothers
3. Lethbridge (3:23.41) – Owen Guyn, Tom Utas, Adam Stromberg, Raine Arden
DAY 1 MEDALLISTS
Women’s 50-metre butterfly
1. Hoi Lam Tam, UBC (27.16)
2. Ingrid Wilm, UBC (27.18)
3. Dora Modrcin, Manitoba (27.52)
Men’s 50-metre butterfly
1. Josiah Binnema, UBC (23.91)
2. Stephen Calkins, Calgary (24.20)
3. Markus Thormeyer, UBC (24.32)
Women’s 50-metre backstroke
1. Danielle Hanus, Victoria (27.42)
2. Dora Modrcin, Manitoba (28.21)
3. Olivia Ellard, UBC (28.96)
Men’s 50-metre backstroke
1. Markus Thormeyer, UBC (24.45) *Canada West Record
2. Josiah Binnema, UBC (24.53)
3. Robert Hill, Calgary (25.46)
Women’s 50-metre breaststroke
1. Kelsey Wog, Manitoba (30.56)
2. Madalyn Smith, Alberta (31.46)
3. Renae Ledoux, Alberta (31.84)
Men’s 50-metre breaststroke
1. Joel Robinson, Lethbridge (28.09)
2. Jaren LeFranc, UBC (28.60)
3. Ruishen Yu, UBC (28.69)
Women’s 800-metre freestyle
1. Megan Dalke, UBC (8:37.73)
2. Emily Overholt, UBC (8:47.54)
3. Marit Anderson, Calgary (8:48.84)
Men’s 1500-metre freestyle
1. Eric Hedlin, Victoria (15:28.11)
2. Hau-Li Fan, UBC (15:29.70)
3. Peter Brothers, Calgary (15:41.94)
Women’s 4x200-metre freestyle relay
1. UBC (8:04.16) – Maia Brundage, Emily Overholt, Hillary Metcalfe, Megan Dalke
2. Victoria (8:18.90) – Danielle Hanus, Lauren Taylor, Allison Ballantyne, Kaitlin Gervais
3. Calgary (8:19.39) – Marit Anderson, Ana Kolaric, Robyn Lee, Allison McCloy
Men’s 4x200-metre freestyle relay
1. UBC (7:18.73) – Alexander Pratt, Josiah Binnema, Markus Thormeyer, Justin Konik
2. Calgary (7:23.44) – Peter Brothers, Stephen Calkins, Teddy Kalp, Paul Latkovic
3. Victoria (7:29.95) – Buzz Mallender, Eric Hedlin, Austin Phillips, Josh Zakala