Day 3 CIS championships (prelims): Olympians Russell, Dickens swim 50 breast in CIS record time

Courtesy of Ben Schach, UBC sports information

VANCOUVER (CIS) - Olympians Colin Russell of Toronto and Scott Dickens of UBC highlighted the third and final morning of preliminaries at the 2009 CIS swimming championships that conclude Saturday night at the UBC Aquatic Centre.

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

In the very first race of the day, Russell (Burlington, Ont.), who represented Canada at last summer's Beijing Olympics, and Dickens, who competed in Athens in 2004, both went under the old CIS championship record of 27.85 seconds in the men's 50-metre breaststroke touching the wall in 27.63 and 27.71, respectively.

Dickens held the previous meet mark since 2005, and was CIS gold medallist in the event from 2005 to 2007 before taking a year off from university swimming last season.

Russell's prelim time is only 0.06 seconds off the Canadian short-course record of 27.57 set a decade ago by 2000 Olympian Morgan Knabe.

Olympian Mike Brown (Perth, Ont.) of the Calgary Dinos was third Saturday morning in 28.21, while last year's CIS champion, Dino teammate Chris Tobin (Oxford Mills, Ont.), will go into tonight's final ranked fourth after finishing in 28.40.

Other preliminary winners on Saturday were Olympian Annamay Pierse (Edmonton) of UBC in both the women's 50-metre breast and 200 individual medley; UBC's Matt Hawes (Ottawa) in the men's 200 backstroke; Calgary's Jessika Craig (Picton, Ont.) in the women's 200 back; Ryan Gow (Peterborough, Ont.) of Calgary in the men's 100 freestyle; Olympian Erica Morningstar (Regina) of Calgary in the women's 100 free; and Olympian Keith Beavers (Waterloo, Ont.) of Waterloo in the men's 200 medley.

The women's 800 freestyle and men's 1500 free finals are contested both this morning and tonight, while the 4 x 100 medley relays will also be on the menu Saturday evening.

Excluding the individual long-distance races, Calgary qualified 11 women and 11 men for tonight's finals, while UBC qualified eight female and eight male swimmers.

The Dino women, looking for their first-ever CIS team title, hold a commanding 534-382 lead over 11-time defending champion UBC going into Saturday night.

The UBC men, hoping to reclaim the CIS banner after their 10-year reign came to an end last season, hold a 471-424 advantage over defending champion Calgary.

RACE-BY-RACE RECAP: SATURDAY PRELIMINARIES

Men's 50 metre breaststroke

Round three of the Battle of the Breaststroke Olympians (UBC's Scott Dickens and Calgary's Mike Brown) has an added partner in tonight's 50 metre race with Colin Russell, a freestyle sprinter and 2008 Olympian, setting a CIS championship record with a time of 27.63 in this morning's preliminary. Dickens, who set the meet record in 2005 with a time of 27.85, was also under his old standard hitting the wall at 27.71. Brown shouldn't be discounted, however, as he qualified third in 28.21. Brown will have a pair of teammates also in the medal mix in defending champion Chris Tobin (28.40) and rookie Jason Block (28.41).

Women's 50 metre breaststroke

Annamay Pierse will be searching for a Canadian record sweep of the breaststroke events this evening after qualifying first in the 50 breaststroke with a time of 31.89. Pierse set a Canadian mark in November of 2008 with a time of 31.00 but had that record broken last weekend by Amanda Reason who set the new mark at 30.48. The race for the medals behind Pierse is wide open. Alberta rookie Kayla Voytechek qualified second in 32.11 with 50 freestyle silver medallist Marie-Pier Ratelle of Laval third (32.27).

Men's 200 metre backstroke

UBC's Matt Hawes, the 2007 CIS champion in this event, leads a group of three Thunderbirds into tonight's final after qualifying first overall with a time of 1:58.32. Also joining Hawes from UBC in the race for the medals are Jordan Hartney (1:59.91), last year's bronze medallist, and Erich Schmitt (2:01.54) who qualified fifth and eighth respectively. Calgary's Dan Langlois, who finished third behind Hawes in 2007, goes into tonight's final ranked second and was the only other swimmer under 1:59 this morning with a time of 1:58.66.

Women's 200 metre backstroke

The Canadian record will be given a run this evening by a trio of Calgary Dino backstrokes. Jessika Craig qualified first this morning in a time of 2:09.02 and leads 100 metre backstroke champion Kay Murdoch (2:10.54) and 50 backstroke champion Hanna Kubas (2:14.61) into tonight's final.

Men's 100 metre freestyle

First through eighth was separated by just six tenths of a second in the morning's preliminaries with Calgary's Ryan Gow touching first in 49.81 to lead a group of five Dinos into the sprint final. The favourite heading into tonight's race is Toronto's Colin Russell (49.82) who has already taken gold in the 200 freestyle (1:43.31), in Canadian record time, and the 50 freestyle (22.03), in a CIS championship record, this weekend. Rounding out the final is a pair of T-Birds in Rory Biskupski (49.88) and Duncan Furrer (50.43).

Women's 100 metre freestyle

Calgary's Erica Morningstar just missed the CIS meet record with the top qualifying time of 55.41 and she leads a trio of Dinos who were all under 56 seconds into tonight's final. Breanna Hendriks (55.80) and Seanna Mitchell (55.87), who alongside Morningstar and Katy Murdoch set a national record in the 4x100 metre freestyle relay, qualified second and third. The Dinos will be looking for a 1-2-3 sweep, something they achieved in both the 100 and 400 metre freestyles earlier this weekend.

Men's 200 metre individual medley

2008 Olympian Keith Beavers, who swims for Waterloo, will be going for his first CIS gold this evening, qualifying in top spot this morning with a time of 1:58.61. Beavers led a group of three Olympians into the final with breaststrokers Scott Dickens, from UBC, (2:00.61) and Calgary's Mike Brown (2:01.84) tangling once again for a medal. UBC's Jordan Hartney, who won silver last year in the event, ranks fifth with a time of 2:02.13.

Women's 200 metre individual medley

Canadian record holder Erica Morningstar touched second this morning with a time of 2:14.96, one one-hundreth behind UBC's breaststroke star Annamay Pierse (2:14.95). That duo will be chasing one of the oldest CIS marks in the record book this evening as Nancy Sweetnam's time of 2:10.90 has stood since 1993. Pierse's younger sister, Hanna, sits third overall at 2:16.33 and is one of four T-Birds in the final.