Canadian Olympic Trials Day 1 Recap

Women’s 400 Free

Kaitlin Gervais continued her great season with a best time in the 400 freestyle preliminaries.  Her posting of 4:22.89 was good enough to position her in the B Final of the event.  Gervais swam to a finals time of 4:23.82, placing her 18^th overall in a very fast women’s 400 free field. 

Sixteen-year old Erin Lawrance got her first taste of Olympic Trials with her 400 free swim Tuesday morning.  Swimming just off of her personal best, Lawrance touched the wall in 4:29.38, and gained valuable racing experience on the biggest stage Canada has to offer.  Her focus now turns to the 200 fly on Friday, and the 800 free on Saturday. 

Men’s 100 Breast

Brett Zollen swam to a lifetime best in the men’s 100 breaststroke, with his clocking of 1:05.95 in preliminaries.  The fourth year Vike is the busiest UVPCS swimmer at Canadian Olympic Trials, as he will also swim the 50 free, 100 free and 200 IM later this week.

Vikes senior Richard Bourgeois capped off his swimming career with the 100 breaststroke on Tuesday at Canadian Olympic Trials.  The current Vikes 50 breaststroke record holder swam to a time of 1:06.26.  Bourgeois began his swimming career with the Nanaimo White Rapids of the BCSSA, and then went on to swim for the Nanaimo Riptides for three years prior to moving to Victoria for school.  He represented the University of Victoria Vikes for the past four years and made a number of finals at both the Canada West Conference Championships and the Canadian Interuniversity Sport Championships during that time.  Good luck to Richard in his future endeavors, as he graduates this spring and moves onto life after swimming.

Women’s 100 Fly

Thirteen-year old Jessica Luo swam in her first, of what is sure to be many, senior national races in the women’s 100 fly.  Her performance of 1:05.01 was just off her best, but the front-end speed she showed sets her up well for the 200 fly later this week.  

Men’s 200 Free

Evan Letkeman swam to a time of 1:55.00 in the men’s 200 freestyle on the first day of the meet.  The time was a personal best by close to a second from his impressive finals swim at the university nationals held in February in Laval, Quebec.  Letkeman has two more events on the docket, with the 100 back and 200 back coming later this week.

First year Vike Cale Murdock swam to a best time of 1:53.66 in the men’s 200 freestyle preliminaries on Tuesday morning.  Competing at his first senior national meet, Murdock showed great control on the first one hundred and as a result, brought the back half of his race home in great splitting.