Thormeyer Hits 51.5 100 Back For Meet Record At Day 2 U SPORTS Prelims

2020 U SPORTS SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• February 20-22, 2020
• Saanich Commonwealth Place, Victoria, British Columbia
• Prelims: SCM (25m) / 10 am PT
• Finals: LCM (50m) / 6 pm PT
• Championship Central
• Psych Sheet
• Live Results
• Webcast
• Meet Records (LCM)
• Meet Records (SCM)

Coming off of winning two gold medals on the opening night of the 2020 U SPORTS Swimming Championships in Victoria, UBC’s Markus Thormeyer delivered a meet record during the prelims on Friday.

The heats at the competition are contested in short course meters and the finals are long course.

Thormeyer recorded a time of 51.57 in the men’s 100 back, lowering the U SPORTS Championship Record of 51.95 set by fellow Thunderbird Kelly Aspinall in 2013. The swim was also a new best for Thormeyer, the three-time defending champion, who had previously been 51.67 at the Lewisville stop of the International Swimming League’s inaugural season in October.

The national record stands at 50.60, set by Jake Tapp in 2009.

McGill’s Clement Secchi, who won two individual golds on night one along with a relay bronze, qualified second overall in 53.32. Last season he placed fourth.

In a back-to-back scenario, Secchi went on to grab the top qualifying time in the men’s 50 fly minutes later, touching in 24.24. His teammates Samuel Wang (24.38) and Adrian Goin (24.46) were the next two fastest swimmers to give McGill the top-three seeds for the final.

Other individual gold medalists from day one who earned a top seed during the prelims were Victoria’s Danielle Hanus, Manitoba’s Kelsey Wog and UBC’s Jaren LeFranc.

Hanus, who doubled up on day one with victories in the women’s 50 back and 100 fly, is setting herself up for a repeat on day two, earning the top spot in both the 100 back (58.09) and 200 fly (2:08.87) this morning. Hanus is the two-time defending champion in the 200 fly, and her swim this morning was a new personal best (previously having been 2:08.94).

The 2017 200 fly gold medalist Hannah Genich of Toronto advanced second overall in 2:09.84, and also was the top qualifier in the 50 fly (26.91).

Wog, who moved up seven spots to become the #2 Canadian performer of all-time in the women’s 100 breaststroke last night, torched the prelims of the 200 breast this morning in 2:20.22, just over two seconds off her best time of 2:18.06 set at the ISL Final in Las Vegas back in December. The 21-year-old sits almost nine seconds clear of the next-fastest qualifier, putting her in good shape to win a third straight gold tonight.

In the men’s 200 breast it was the defending champion LeFranc, who won the 100 breast on day one, setting the pace in 2:12.09. Ottawa’s Will Barrett sits second in 2:12.41, improving on his best time by almost two seconds.

OTHER EVENTS

• Danica Ludlow and Emily Overholt are set for a rematch of last night’s 200 free final as they qualified 1-2 in the women’s 400 free. Ludlow, the 2018 winner, leads in 4:11.31, followed by Overholt, last year’s champ, in 4:13.49. Overholt won three gold medals on day one, including two individual in that 200 free and the 400 IM.
• Ottawa’s Davide Casarin (3:47.94) and UBC’s Alexander Pratt (3:50.64) advanced first and second overall in the men’s 400 free, the same positions they finished in last season’s final.
• The 2019 silver and bronze medalists Hoi Lam Tam (25.21) of UBC and Ainsley McMurray (25.29) of Toronto qualified first and second in the women’s 50 free. The time for McMurray was a new best, lowering her 25.37 from this meet one year ago.
• Cameron Kidd of the Varsity Blues was seven-tenths faster than the rest of the field in this morning’s men’s 50 free heats, clocking 21.96. Manitoba’s Anthony Iliouchetchev is a distant second in 22.66. Kidd sat out last season, but was a medalist the three years previous, winning silver in 2016 and 2018 to go along with a bronze in 2017.
• Reigning Ontario champion Sebastian Paulins of Western University was the lone man to break 2:00 in the 200 fly heats, recording a time of 1:59.56. Last season Paulins was ninth in the prelims before placing 16th in the LCM final. Last year’s winner, Casarin, has elected not to race the event.