CANADA WEST SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS PREVIEW

Christian Desjarlais

SWIMMING
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2012
CANADA WEST CHAMPIONSHIPS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CANADA WEST SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS PREVIEW

LANGLEY, British Columbia – The Trinity Western men’s and women’s swim teams will be making their conference debuts when they jump in the pool at this year’s Canada West championships at the Kinsmen Pool in Edmonton, Alta, Jan 27-29.

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Men
2010-11 Canada West championship: N/A
2010-11 CIS championship: N/A
Last CW title: none
Last CIS title: none

Women
2010-11 Canada West championship: N/A
2010-11 CIS championship: N/A
Last CW title: none
Last CIS title: none

The Spartans will bring six athletes to Alberta this year with three on the women’s side and three on the men’s side.

Trinity Western is led by Christian Desjarlais on the men’s side, who gives the Spartans their best chance at a medal in Edmonton. Look for Desjarlais to compete well in both the 200m and 400m freestyle events, both of which he has already posted qualifying time for the CIS national championships. Patrick Loftus will also be one to watch as has already posted national championship qualifying times in the 50m and 200m backstroke. Also on the men’s side will be Nick Welychko, who will be pursuing CIS qualifying times in three breast stroke event and two individual medley events.

On the women’s side, the lone CIS qualifier thus far is Lindsey Romkes who posted a qualifying time in the 200m butterfly in November. She will be swimming in free and fly events. Also competing for Trinity Western on the women’s side will be Sally Wallick, swimming in back, fly and IM events and Kiely Cunningham, who will be competing in breast and IM events.

Events

MEN
Christian Desjarlais
# 4 Men 50 Fly – PB – 27.22S
# 12 Men 50 Free – PB – 24.55S
# 16 Men 100 Fly – PB – 59.34S
# 22 Men 200 Free – PB – 1:51.99S
# 28 Men 100 Free – PB – 52.94S
# 36 Men 400 Free – PB – 3:55.52S

Patrick Loftus
# 6 Men 50 Back – PB – 26.62S
# 12 Men 50 Free – PB – 24.79S
# 18 Men 200 Back – PB – 2:04.91S
# 28 Men 100 Free – PB – 55.71S
# 32 Men 100 Back – PB – 57.68S

Nick Welychko
# 8 Men 50 Breast – PB – 32.02S
# 14 Men 400 IM – PB – 4:55.60S
# 20 Men 100 Breast – PB – 1:07.37S
# 30 Men 200 IM – PB – 2:11.38S
# 34 Men 200 Breast – PB – 2:36.78S

WOMEN
Lindsey Romkes
# 3 Women 50 Fly – PB – 30.39S
# 11 Women 50 Free – PB – 27.53S
# 15 Women 100 Fly – PB – 1:05.19S
# 21 Women 200 Free – PB – 2:06.69S
# 25 Women 200 Fly – PB – 2:21.31S
# 27 Women 100 Free – PB – 59.12S
# 35 Women 400 Free – PB – 4:30.72S

Kiely Cunningham
# 7 Women 50 Breast – PB – 35.22S
# 13 Women 400 IM – PB – 5:20.48S
# 19 Women 100 Breast – PB – 1:15.73S
# 29 Women 200 IM – PB – 2:32.87S
# 33 Women 200 Breast – PB – 2:46.34S

Sally Wallick
# 3 Women 50 Fly – PB – 30.17S
# 15 Women 100 Fly – PB – 1:07.65S
# 17 Women 200 Back – PB – 2:26.32S
# 25 Women 200 Fly – PB – 2:39.99S
# 29 Women 200 IM – PB – 2:29.24S
# 31 Women 100 Back – PB – 1:09.11S

The Canada West Men compete for the E.W. Griffiths team title trophy, while women’s teams are battling for the Felstad Memorial trophy. A Swimmer of the Meet and Rookie of the Meet from both the men’s and women’s competition will be announced on Sunday evening.

Individual winners and members of winning relay teams are considered First Team Canada West All-Stars. Medalists and all swimmers who meet the CIS time standards will qualify for the CIS championships in Montreal, Feb. 23-25: http://english.cis-sic.ca/championships/swim/index

SCHEDULE
Friday, Jan. 27 Finals: 5:00-7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Jan. 28 Preliminaries: 10:00 a.m.-12:00 Noon; Finals at 5:00-7:30 p.m.
Sunday, Jan. 30 Preliminaries: 9:00-11:00 a.m.; Finals at 2:00-4:00 p.m.

CIS RANKINGS (January 17th)

Women
1. Calgary 560 points / (1)
2. Toronto 423 / (2)
3. Laval 255 / (4)
4. Western Ontario 244 / (3)
5. Alberta 232 / (5)
6. UBC 207 / (7)
7. Dalhousie 181 / (6)
8. Ottawa 119 / (8)
9. McMaster 105 / (9)
10. Guelph 94 / (10)

Men
1. Dalhousie 410 points / (1)
2. Alberta 401 / (T2)
3. Toronto 400 / (T2)
4. Calgary 338 / (4)
5. McGill 255 / (5)
6. Laval 196 / (6)
7. McMaster 167 / (7)
8. Victoria 156 / (8)
9. UBC 144 / (10)
10. Guelph 134 / (9)

ALBERTA GOLDEN BEARS & PANDAS

Men
2010-11 Canada West championship: 3rd
2010-11 CIS championship: 7th
Last CW title: 1995-96
Last CIS title: none

Women
2010-11 CW: 4th
2010-11 CIS: 6th
Last CW title: 1992-93
Last CIS title: none

Key additions: Erin Miller, Joe Byram

Key returnees: Josh Au, Scott Stewart, Kayla Voytechek, Bobbie Mielnichuk

Key departures: none

EDMONTON - With veteran teams, a presence on the national top 10 lists and the conference championship meet in their home pool, the University of Alberta swimming teams are poised to post some of the best results to date in program history.

With a roster featuring 12 athletes in their fourth or fifth year of eligibility, both Alberta teams have the experience and the talent to increase their status, especially at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) championship meet.

Traditional powers UBC and Calgary look to continue their respective dominance of the Canada West pool deck and top podium spots, and while they remain the teams to beat at the national level as well, both the Bears and Pandas should move up a few positions at the national meet, with an outside chance of a team medal.

Newcomer Erin Miller, who swam with UBC when they won the CIS title in 2008, is a key addition to the Pandas. She can swim in the 100m fly, the 100m and 200m butterfly events as well as in medley relay events. She bolsters a line-up that includes multiple CIS medalist Kayla Voytechek.

The Golden Bears are led by former CIS medalists Josh Au and Brian Yakiwchuk, as well as Canada West All-Star Scott Stewart.

UBC THUNDERBIRDS

Men
2010-11 Canada West championship: 1st
2010-11 CIS championship: 2nd
Last CW title: 2010-11
Last CIS title: 2008-09

Women
2010-11 Canada West championship: 1st
2010-11 CIS championship: 2nd
Last CW title: 2010-11
Last CIS title: 2007-08

Key additions: Tera Van Beilen, Erin Assman

Key returnees: Martha McCabe, Heather McLean, Savannah King, Rory Biskupski, Tommy Gossland, Alex Loginov

Key departure: Hanna Pierse

VANCOUVER - The UBC Thunderbirds’ staunchest foes in their title defence will be the Calgary Dinos which, together with UBC, have combined to win at least a share of every men’s and women’s Canada West championship banner since the 1993-1994 season.

World championship bronze medalist and fifth-year swimmer Martha McCabe leads the women in defence of the conference crown. McCabe will no doubt be the one to beat in the breaststroke event and may sway the advantage in the 4x100m medley relay in favour of the T-Birds.

In the freestyle events, a pair of second year swimmers in Heather McLean and Savannah King will lead the charge. MacLean, a former national team member, won silver in the 200 metre freestyle at the CIS Championships, while King burst onto the CIS scene last season claiming four medals at the Nationals, including two golds.

Key additions on the women's side include Tera Van Beilen, who joins the growing list of exceptional breaststroke swimmers training at the Vancouver National Swim Centre. Van Beilen is a threat at all three breaststroke distance as well as the individual medley and should make up for the loss of Hanna Pierse, who capped off her stellar five-year UBC career last season.

For the men they have the rare luxury of depth, as 18 swimmers will travel to the Canada West championships.

Leading the way for the men's squad are a trio of fifth-year sprinters in Rory Biskupski, Tommy Gossland and Duncan Furrer. All three were medalists at last year's CIS championships with Gossland, the lone individual medalist winning silver in both the 50 and 100 metre freestyle.

Alex Loginov, Phillip Mackie and Nathaniel Lai are new additions to the men's team.

CALGARY DINOS

Men
2010-11 Canada West championship: 2nd
2010-11 CIS championship: 1st
Last CW title: 2009-10
Last CIS title: 2010-11

Women
2010-11 CW: 2nd
2010-11 CIS: 1st
Last CW title: 2008-09
Last CIS title: 2010-11

Key Additions: Amanda Reason, Lindsay Delmar, Bryan Wray, Michael Lowenstein

Key Returnees: Seanna Mitchell, Allison Long, Breanna Hendriks, Jason Block, Gleb Suvorov, David Woodman

Key Departures: Erica Morningstar, Kevyn Peterson, David Dimitrov, Bogdan Knezevic

CALGARY - The Dinos swimmers again enter the season as defending national champions, but it has been a couple of years since they last had ultimate success at the conference level.

It’s an Olympic year, so both Dinos teams are missing marquee swimmers who are taking the year off school to focus on their training for London. Reigning CIS swimmer of the year Erica Morningstar is one of those athletes. A pair of new additions should help ease that burden with Amanda Reason and Lindsay Delmar set to make their varsity debuts.

Reason, a former world record holder, is an outstanding freestyler and breaststroker and should be a contender for both the conference and national rookie-of-the-year honours. She joined the Dinos out of the Etobicoke Swim Club.

Delmar is a top butterfly and middle-distance swimmer out of the University of Calgary Swim Club. The two join returning standouts Seanna Mitchell, Allison Long, Breanna Hendriks and Fiona Doyle as gold medal threats in the Canada West pool.

On the men’s side two Dinos are absent as they prepare for London 2012: last year’s Canada West outstanding swimmer David Dimitrov along with 2010 CIS rookie of the year Bogdan Knezevic. Dimitrov is attempting to qualify for the Bulgarian team, while Knezevic aims to swim at the Olympics for his native Serbia.

Blondal will send just 12 swimmers into the pool at the Canada West event, with the hope of qualifying as many as possible to the CIS championship as the Dinos look to defend their two straight national titles. The team is led by breaststroker Jason Block, who has swept the events in his stroke at the CIS championships each of the past two seasons. Gleb Suvorov was the conference’s top rookie in 2011 and is a strong backstroke and IM swimmer, while Michael Lowenstein joins Calgary after a stint at UNLV and is also a backstroker.

LETHBRIDGE PRONGHORNS

Men
2010-11 Canada West championship: 5th
2010-11 CIS championship: 17th
Last CW title: none
Last CIS title: none

Women
2010-11 CW: 5th
2010-11 CIS: 16th
Last CW title: none
Last CIS title: none

Key returnees: Nicol, Ryan Thornley, Jessica Kelly

LETHBRIDGE, AB - Once again the Lethbridge Pronghorns’ goal is to move up the Canada West rankings and add CIS qualifiers. Fifteen Pronghorn student-athletes will be taking to the waters in Edmonton.

On the men’s side, returning Canada West Medalists and school record holders are Jeffrey Nicol and Ryan Thornley. Nicol is currently ranked #2 in Canada West in the 200m and 100m breaststroke, and ranked third in the 50m breaststroke. Thornley is ranked second in the 50m ’fly.

Adam Krysiak, David Errington, and Mat Loyola are all ranked in the top eight in breaststroke events. Spencer Simkin and Matt Mastromatteo are also pre-ranked in the top 16 scoring places in the 1500m free and backstroke events, respectively.

The rookie class has added to the team’s depth. Nick Van der Sloot and Tiha Konyves are both Canadian National Qualifiers, and Griffin Brown is within grasp of a CIS time standard. Early in the season the men broke the school record in the 4x50m Medley Relay.

On the women’s side, five-time school record holder Jessica Kelly will be expected to carry the workload. Kelly has been a Canada West Medalist in the past and looks to add to her career medal totals. Kelly is pre-ranked 4th in the 100 fly, 50 fly, 50 backstroke, and 100 backstroke.  Kelly is also prequalified for the CIS Championships in February.

Mary O’Neil and Lauren Smythies are both returning Canada West point scorers and look to be in the top 16 individually. They are also on the hunt for the Open Western Canadian qualifying times.

MANITOBA BISONS

Men
2010-11 Canada West championship: 6th
2010-11 CIS championship: 15th
Last CW title: none
Last CIS title: none

Women
2010-11 CW: 6th
2010-11 CIS: 18th
Last CW title: none
Last CIS title: none

Key additions: Luella Ocon (women); Meaghan Fisher (women); Riley Unger (men); James Zubriski (men); Jourey Basco (men)

Key returnees: Keri-Ann Bochen (women); Julie Therrien (women); Kendra Garagan (women); Sydney Gergely (women); Riley Pickerl (men); Patrick Boreskie (men); Bradley Ryant (men)

Key departures: Braeden Taylor (men); Casey Gergely (men)

WINNIPEG - Going into the Canada West championships, both Bisons teams (11 women, 10 men) have a larger contingent than last season.

The women’s side has three swimmers (Kerri-Ann Bochen, Julie Therrien and Luella Ocon) qualified for the 2012 CIS Nationals. Fifth-year Bochen has the best chance for a medal as she is ranked third in Canada West and eighth in CIS in 200m breaststroke and ninth in the conference in 100m breaststroke. Fourth-year Therrien is seventh ranked in conference in 50m freestyle and ninth in CW in 100m freestyle. Rookie Ocon is seventh ranked in conference in the 50m and 100m breaststroke. Other Bison swimmers who will compete for final swims are second year Kendra Garagan (400m, 800m freestyle), rookie Meaghan Fisher (50m back, 100m butterfly) and sophomore Sydney Gergely (50m, 200m breast). The 200m freestyle relay and 200m medley relay are both ranked fourth in Canada West.

For the men, third-year Riley Pickerl is looking to replicate his outstanding rookie year in the pool for Manitoba and is sixth in Canada West in 400m freestyle, while 13th in conference in 200m freestyle. Rookie James Zubriski is sixth ranked in Canada West in 200m butterfly, 400m individual medley and 800m freestyle while eighth in 400m freestyle. Fourth-year Patrick Boreskie ranks eighth in conference in 50m breaststroke and 12th in 100m breast, second year Bradley Ryant (50m freestyle, 50m butterfly) and rookie Jourey Basco (50m back, 200m IM).

REGINA COUGARS

Men
2010-11 Canada West championship: N/A
2010-11 CIS championship: N/A
Last CW title: none
Last CIS title: none

Women
2010-11 CW: 7th
2010-11 CIS: 21st
Last CW title: none
Last CIS title: none

REGINA - Led by second-year head coach Sylvain Pineau, the Regina Cougars continue to show steady improvement and will send four athletes on both the men’s and the women’s side to the Canada West championships.

Leading the way for the women’s team is Jessica Winter, the only Cougar to hit a CIS standard this season. Winter’s time of 4:24.62 in the 400m freestyle back in late October was over two seconds faster than the national standard, and the second-year swimmer has also hit Canada West standards in seven other events.

Kimberly McWhirter has hit the conference standard in five events. The team’s most experienced swimmer is Erika Brown, who qualified for the Canada West meet in two butterfly events and will be competing in her third conference championship. Rookie Natalya Milner will be added to the roster to round out the women’s relay teams.

Bolstered by the midseason addition of Venezuelan rookie Carlos Quiroz to the roster, the men’s team heads into the conference meet with enough swimmers to compete in the relay events for the first time since 2006. Quiroz and fellow rookie Chris Myers lead the Cougars with five Canada West standards apiece, while Hector Fukushi and Craig Soutar have both hit two conference marks.

Quiroz and Myers likely have the best shot of joining Winter at the CIS championships in Montreal. Quiroz was less than four-tenths of a second from hitting a CIS standard in both the 50m freestyle and the 50m butterfly, while Myers’ top time of 30.43 seconds in the 50m breaststroke was just a half second shy of the national qualifying mark.

VICTORIA VIKES

Men
2010-11 Canada West championship: 4th
2010-11 CIS championship: 8th
Last CW title: none
Last CIS title: none

Women
2010-11 CW: 3rd
2010-11 CIS: 4th
Last CW title: 1979-80
Last CIS title: none

Key additions: Zach Parke

Key returnees: Ian Mattock, Ella Dalling

Key departures: Ryan Cochrane, Richard Weinberger, Nicholas Sinclair, Hilary Caldwell and Stephanie Horner, Kim Bryan

VICTORIA - The Victoria Vikes will send a relatively young team to the 2012 Canada West championships.

A number of top Vikes from 2010-11 are focussing on training for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London, England, including Ryan Cochrane, a 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic medallist and the CIS male swimmer and rookie of the year, who joined the Vikes after the 2011 conference championship. Swimmers in the same boat include Hilary Caldwell, Stephanie Horner, Nicholas Sinclair and Richard Weinberger. Weinberger has had a major surge in international recognition since his win at a test-race at the Hyde Park Serpentine in London, England, last summer.

This year's top Vikes males are expected to freshman Zach Parkes of Victoria - a Junior Pan-Pacific open water swimmer who also competed at two recent World Cup events - and junior Ian Mattock, a graduate of Parklands Secondary School.

On the women's side, Ella Dalling, Julia Schmidt, Liz Sissons and Allison Wood all return to the fold.

-TW-

Last Updated: 2012-01-27
Author: Mark Janzen