McKay closes out championship weekend for Vikes with silver medal

February 22, 2014 — Ryan Clouston

Competition wrapped up at the 2014 CIS Speedo Swimming Championships, Feb. 22 at the University of Toronto, with the Vikes finishing the weekend with a total of four medals after the three-day competition that included a silver medal on the final day of competition, won by first-year swimmer Jon McKay.

Four of five Vikes swimmers on the women's side saw action Saturday, competing in the 50-metre breaststroke, 200-metre individual medley and the 800-metre freestyle. Senior Vike Stephanie Horner posted the strongest finish of the day, finishing eighth in the 800-metre freestyle, while also placing 13^th in the B-final of the 200-metre individual medley.

The Vikes duo of Sarah Galbraith and Jordan Stariha competed in the 50-metre breaststroke B-final, finishing 11^th and 14^th-place, respectively. Rachael Newman finished in 27^th overall in the same distance.

On the men's side, the spotlight was on rookie sensation Jon McKay, who captured silver in the men's 1500-metre freestyle with a time of 15:11.00. Vike Aimeson Sparks-King also competed in the A-final for the Vikes, finishing in seventh place. In total, five Vikes competed in the freestyle event.

"I thought the men were really good today," said Vikes head coach Peter Vizsolyi. "Jon McKay's 1500-metre swim today was really good, he had a 15-second drop in today's race."

Saturday signaled the final day of the 2014 CIS Swimming Championships, with the Vikes completeing the three-day competition in 13th place on the women's side, while the men finished in seventh. The Vikes total of four medals came from the combination of Keegan Zanatta, Horner and McKay.

Victoria will next see competetition at the B.C. Senior Championships, Mar. 8-9 at the University of British Columbia before closing out the season at the Pan Pacific/Commonwealth Game trials.