Day 1 CIS championships (prelims): Dinos, Birds dominate opening session

VANCOUVER (CIS) - The University of Calgary Dinos and UBC Thunderbirds dominated the first preliminary session of the 2009 CIS swimming championships, Thursday morning, at the UBC Aquatic Centre.

Championship website (live results & live video webcast):
www.cisport.ca/e/championships/swimming/2009

The Dinos hold the early advantage in the women's team race with 13 swimmers qualifying for Thursday night's individual finals compared to nine for the host T-Birds, while in the men's competition UBC has 14 athletes going for individual gold this evening compared to 11 for Calgary.

The U of C women are looking for their first-ever national title and hope to put an end to UBC's 11-year domination of CIS swimming. Calgary has placed second to its archrivals at the CIS meet each of the past eight seasons.

The Dino men are looking to repeat as CIS champions, one year after putting an end to the T-Birds 10-year reign.

Among qualifiers for tonight's finals are Olympians Erica Morningstar (Regina) of Calgary in the women's 200-metre freestyle, Annamay Pierse (Edmonton) of UBC in the women's 100m breaststroke and Mike Brown (Perth, Ont.) in the men's 100m breast.

Thursday's finals kick off at 6 p.m. Pacific.

Following is a race-by-race recap of Thursday morning's preliminaries.

Women's 200 metre freestyle

The Calgary Dinos took charge of the women's meet with a dominating morning in the 200-metre freestyle, earning the top four spots heading into tonight's final. Katy Murdoch led the Dino quartet with a time of 1:58.68 and the group featured the last three CIS female rookies of the year in Breanna Hendriks, Kevyn Peterson and Murdoch. The odds on favourite for this year's award, 2008 Olympian Erica Morningstar, qualified second overall for Calgary. U of T had three of the other four finalists, with Western Mustang Brittany Cooper also making the top eight.

Men's 200 metre freestyle

Things are heating up fast in the men's battle between UBC and Calgary. The two powerhouses had six of the top eight qualifiers in an extremely quick men's 200 freestyle. Last year it took a 1:52.31 to make the finals but this year eighth place in the morning was a 1:49.86, a result that would have missed a 2008 silver medal by less than a half of a second.

Women's 50 metre backstroke

The Dinos had the two top qualifiers for tonight's final. Hanna Kubas led the way with a time of 27.74, less than two tenths of a second off the CIS championship record held by UQTR's Jennifer Carroll. Murdoch touched the wall in second in 27.90 with Carroll taking third this morning with a time 28.45.

Men's 50 metre backstroke

Reigning CIS male swimmer of the meet Callum Ng leads a trio of T-Birds into tonight's final with a top prelim time of 24.85. Also joining Ng in the race for gold will be UBC teammates Matt Hawes (25.74) and rookie Alexander Johnson (25.82). Calgary's Kelly Aspinall (25.44) and Dan Langlois (25.77) should also be in the medal mix.

Women's 100 metre breaststroke

2008 Olympian Annamay Pierse (1:07.45) leads four T-Birds into the final and was the only swimmer under 1:08 this morning. Teammates Haylee Johnson (1:08.00), Hanna Pierse (1:09.66), and Martha McCabe (1:09.83) are all in the medal mix with Alberta's Kayla Voytechek (1:09.59) the sole challenger to break up the UBC sweep.

Men's 100 metre breaststroke

Dino Mike Brown, a 2004 and 2008 Olympian, competing in his first ever CIS meet took first overall this morning with a time of 1:00.13. T-Bird Scott Dickens, who holds the CIS championship record (59.91) and is a 2004 Olympic teammate of Brown's, was second in 1:00.88 and the two swimmers will clash for the first of three times in tonight's final as they battle for gold and a likely CIS meet record.

Women's 100 metre butterfly

The race for the women's butterfly crown is wide open and the final features swimmers from six different schools. The top swim this morning belonged to Laval's Pamela Filiatrault-Veilleux who touched the wall in 1:00.13. CIS record holder MacKenzie Downing of Victoria was second fastest in 1:01.16.

Men's 100 metre butterfly

Rory Biskupski led a 1-2-3 qualifying sweep for the T-Birds this morning, hitting the wall in 53.91, finishing just ahead of Callum Ng (53.97) and Alex Johnson (54.17). Johnson is one of four rookies to make the final alongside Calgary Andre Kudba (54.58), Toronto's Zack Chetrat (54.59) and UVIC's David Killy (54.77).

Women's 400 metre individual medley

Defending champion Hanna Pierse was the morning's top qualifier (4:47.85) and was one of three T-Birds to make the final. The Dinos had a pair of swimmers qualify and those two schools occupied the top five spots in this morning's results.

Men's 400 metre individual medley

Much like the women's event a T-Bird defending champion led the way in the men's 400-metre individual medley. Jordan Hartney was the top qualifier with a time of 4:17.60 and is one of four UBC swimmers that earned a spot in the final. A pair of rookies in McGill's Steven Bielby (4:18.18) and Calgary's Jason Block (4:20.77) should be in the medal mix tonight.