Kisil Hits 21.7/47.3 Sprints As UBC Sweeps Canada West Championships

2017 Canada West Swimming Championships

• November 24-26, 2017
• SCM (25m) Pool
• Saanich Commonwealth Place
• Victoria, BC
• Meet Results

Plenty of meet records fell at the Canada West Swimming Championships in Victoria, BC, held just over a week ago at the Saanich Commonwealth Place. Multiple Olympians and World Championship team members were in attendance, including Yuri Kisil, Markus Thormeyer, Emily Overholt and Erika Seltenreich-Hodgson (all four swimming for UBC). With such talent, the Thunderbirds walked away with team wins for both men and women, with the women winning by nearly 600 points.

Women

Key factors in that massive win for UBC were Seltenreich-Hodgson and Ingrid Wilm, combining to win seven individual events. Seltenreich-Hodgson, a semi-finalist in the 200 IM at both the Rio Games and the 2017 World Championships, came out on top in the 100 free (54.48), 200 free (1:57.32) and the 200 breast (2:24.43). Her swims in both the 100 and 200 free were new Canada West meet records.

Wilm started the meet off with a bang, setting meet records in back-to-back events on day 1 in the 50 fly (26.88) and 50 back (27.15). She followed up with two more meet records later in the meet in the 200 (2:06.98) and 100 back (58.49).

Overholt, who took a break to recover from injury after placing 5th in Rio in the 400 IM, came out on top in that event in a time of 4:39.71. She also had strong swims in the 200 fly (2:10.64) to take 2nd behind Victoria’s Danielle Hanus (2:09.77), and the 400 free (4:12.19) finishing 3rd behind Calgary’s Danica Ludlow (4:07.11) and teammate Megan Dalke (4:11.60). Dalke also won the 800 free in 8:31.35, while Hanus also took down the 100 fly in 59.09 (both butterfly wins were meet records for Hanus).

The biggest non-UBC standout was Manitoba’s Kelsey Wog, who claimed three gold medals in the 50 breast (31.01), 100 breast (1:05.59) and 200 IM (2:09.29), the latter two being meet records.

On the relays it was a UBC sweep, with Seltenreich-Hodgson (1:58.52) and Overholt (1:58.39) leading the way on the 4×200 (7:58.64), consistent 55s all-around for a 3:41.46 meet record in the 4×100 free, and a quick 58.60 lead-off from Wilm in the medley as they set another record in 4:02.87.

Men

Kisil, who has been a semi-finalist in the 100 free at the most recent Olympics, SC World Championships and LC World Championships, put on a show in the sprint free events. He won the 50 by nearly a second in a meet record time of 21.78, and then broke his previous record by a second-and-a-half in 47.31 in the 100.

Thormeyer, who joined Kisil on the Canadian 4×100 free relay in Rio (which placed 7th), outclassed his teammate in the 200 free, running him down to win in 1:45.29 to Kisil’s 1:46.80.

Their UBC teammate Josiah Binnema racked up three individual wins, taking the 100 fly (52.29), 200 fly (1:56.44) and 100 back (52.44). Calgary’s Robert Hill did likewise, winning the 50 back (24.72 to Binnema’s 24.73), 200 back (1:55.83 – meet record) and 200 IM (1:59.28).

Also winning a pair for Calgary was 1st year Frederik Kamminga and 5th year Tristan Cote. Kamminga hit times of 1:01.01 and 2:10.46 in the 100 and 200 breast, while Cote lowered the 2002 meet record in the 400 IM (4:12.22) and held off distance dynamo Eric Hedlin in the 400 free (3:48.49). Hedlin, who broke the U Sports record in February en route to a decisive 1500 title, won that event for Victoria in a solid 14:58.05.

UBC set meet records in all three relays, hittings respective times of 3:17.98, 7:10.37 and 3:35.24. Kisil, Thormeyer and Jonathan Brown added three golds each by swimming on all three.

Final Team Scores

Women

1. UBC, 1111
2. Calgary, 512
3. Regina, 347.5

Men

1. UBC, 878
2. Calgary, 706.5
3. Victoria, 463