RECAP DAY 1 (of 3) CIS swimming championships: Hometown Dinos lead after opening day

Photo credit David Moll

CALGARY (CIS) – The defending champion University of Calgary Dinos hold a solid lead in the women’s standings and a tenuous one on the men’s side after Day 1 of the 2011 CIS Swimming Championships in their home pool.
 
Official website (live results & video webcast of finals): http://english.cis-sic.ca/championships/swim 
Full results: http://www.godinos.com/cisswimming
 
Calgary leads the women’s team standings with 255 points, holding a 50-point advantage over top rival UBC as they aim for a three-peat of CIS women’s titles. The Dinos managed to out-perform their own Day 1 totals from the two previous years, bettering their 2009 score of 252 and their 2010 mark of 217. The Toronto Varsity Blues sit a distant third in the women’s race with 114 points, while Victoria (94) and Montreal (67) round out the top five.
 
The Dinos men were edged out at the last moment by the Thunderbirds in the day’s lone relay and hold a razor-thin 3.5-point lead over UBC, 169.5 against 166. The Laval Rouge et Or remain within striking distance of Calgary and UBC with 133 points, while Toronto’s 111 team points puts them in fifth place after the opening day of racing.
 
In the men’s 4x100-metre freestyle relay, UBC anchor swimmer Duncan Furrer made up more than half a second over Calgary’s James Goodway in the final 50 metres to win the race to the wall by a tenth, claiming gold in a time of 3:17.83. The Dinos had to settle for silver, while Laval’s time of 3:19.14 was good enough for bronze.
 
Calgary dominated the women’s relay, beating second-place Laval by more than five seconds. The Rouge et Or, in turn, upended UBC in the event as the Thunderbirds settled for bronze in 3:46.39.
 
Four swimmers repeated their gold-medal finishes from one year ago in Toronto. Dalhousie’s David Sharpe re-claimed the top step of the podium in the men’s 50-metre backstroke, shaving 18 hundredths off his 2010 time to win gold in 24.99. In the men’s 100-metre butterfly, Zack Chetrat of the Toronto Varsity Blues repeated as champion in 53.30, two tenths faster than his 2010 time. In the same race, teammate Mike Smerek moved one step up the podium to capture silver after a bronze-medal finish in 2010.
 
For the second straight year, the Calgary Dinos swept the 100-metre breaststroke events, and it was two familiar hometown heroes standing atop the podium once again. Jason Block repeated his men’s title with a time of 1:00.11, out-touching teammate Bogdan Knezevic by just under a full second at the wall. The Dinos also went one-two in the women’s race, with Erica Morningstar repeating as champion in 1:05.99, nearly two full seconds ahead of teammate Allison Long.
 
The most exciting race of the evening came early. After Calgary’s Kevyn Peterson won the women’s 200-metre freestyle, the men jumped in for the same race and provided the closest finish of the night. Just two one-hundredths separated gold from bronze as Calgary’s Colin Miazga went stroke-for-stroke with Olympic medallist Ryan Cochrane of Victoria, finishing in a dead heat at 1:47.81. Just .02 seconds behind the co-champions was Laval’s Adam Szoo to take the bronze.
 
Cochrane, who won bronze in the 1500-metre freestyle at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, made one more appearance on the podium Thursday with his bronze-medal finish in the 400-metre individual medley. McGill’s Steven Bielby upgraded his 2010 silver to 2011 gold in the event, while Calgary’s David Dimitrov also moved up one spot on the podium to claim silver.
 
In the women’s 400 IM, defending champion Hanna Pierse of UBC was toppled by provincial rival Stephanie Horner of Victoria. Pierse took silver, while fellow Thunderbird Hayley Pipher took bronze.
 
Victoria’s Hilary Caldwell rounded out Thursday’s gold medallists with her 50-metre backstroke title.
 
The three-day CIS meet resumes Friday morning with preliminaries starting at 10 a.m. Mountain Time and finals at 6 p.m. MT.
 
DAY 1 TEAM STANDINGS
 
Women
 
1. Calgary, 255
2. UBC, 205
3. Toronto, 114
4. Victoria, 91
5. Montreal, 67
6. Western Ontario, 53
6. Laval, 53
8. Alberta, 41
9. Guelph, 39
10. Dalhousie, 33
11. McMaster, 29
12. Wilfrid Laurier, 26
13. Ottawa, 23
14. Lethbridge, 22
15. McGill, 11
16. Laurentian, 8
16. UNB, 8
18. Brock, 5
19. Manitoba, 2
 
Men (Nelson C. Hart trophy)
 
1. Calgary, 169.5
2. UBC, 166
3. Laval, 133
4. Toronto, 111
5. Dalhousie, 73
6. Alberta, 66
7. Victoria, 62.5
8. Montreal, 62
9. Guelph, 48
10. Ottawa, 47
11. Western Ontario, 40
12. McGill, 39
13. McMaster, 22
14. Sherbrooke, 15
14. Manitoba, 15
16. Waterloo, 12
17. Acadia, 2
17. Lethbridge, 2
 
DAY 1 INDIVIDUAL MEDALLISTS (Thursday)
 
Women 200m Free
1. Kevyn Peterson, Calgary, 1:59.08
2. Heather McLean, UBC, 1:59.89
3. Savannah King, UBC, 2:00.26
 
Men 200m Free
1. Ryan Cochrane, Victoria, 1:47.81
1. Colin Miazga, Calgary, 1:47.81
3. Adam Szoo, Laval, 1:47.83
 
W 50m Back
1. Hilary Caldwell, Victoria, 28.25
2. Bethany Flemington, Calgary, 28.67
3. Jy Lawrence, Calgary, 28.93
 
M 50m Back
1. David Sharpe, Dalhousie. 24.99
2. Kelly Aspinall, UBC, 25.21
3. Gleb Suvorov, Calgary, 25.48
 
W 100m Breast
1. Erica Morningstar, Calgary, 1:05.99
2. Allison Long, Calgary, 1:07.73
3. Martha McCabe, UBC, 1:07.83
 
M 100m Breast
1. Jason Block, Calgary, 1:00.11
2. Bogdan Knezevic, Calgary, 1:01.05
3. Bryn Jones, Western Ontario, 1:01.13
 
W 100m Fly
1. Seanna Mitchell, Calgary, 1:00.98
2. Jessica Johnson, Calgary, 1:01.18
3. Chantique Payne, Guelph, 1:01.32
 
M 100m Fly
1. Zack Chetrat, Toronto, 53.30
2. Mike Smerek, Toronto, 53.71
3. Joshua Au, Alberta, 53.85
 
W 400m IM
1. Stephanie Horner, Victoria, 4:41.40
2. Hanna Pierse, UBC, 4:43.66
3. Hayley Pipher, UBC, 4:44.12
 
M 400m IM
1. Steven Bielby, McGill, 4:13.60
2. David Dimitrov, Calgary, 4:17.33
3. Ryan Cochrane, Victoria, 4:19.24
 
W 4 x 100m Free Relay
1.Calgary 3:41.03
(Erica Morningstar, Bethany Flemington, Fiona Doyle, Seanna Mitchell)
2. Laval 3:46.04
(Marie-Pier Ratelle, Charlotte Dandurand, Sarah Routhier, Vanessa Taileffer)
3. UBC 3:46.39
(Kimberly Bowman, Colleen Nesbitt, Heather MacLean, Fionnuala Pierse)
 
M 4 x 100m Free Relay
1. UBC 3:17.83
(Tommy Gossland, Rory Biskupski, Kelly Aspinall, Duncan Furrer)
2. Calgary 3:17.93
(Colin Miazga, Brad Hankewich, Connor Maxey, James Goodway)
3. Laval 3:19.14
(Dominique Massie-Martel, Maxime Jacomelli, Jonathan Blouin, Adam Szoo)
 
 
-CIS-