Vikes Complete First Day at CIS Championships with Exciting Swims

The University of Victoria Vikes swim teams completed their first day of competition at the 2014 CIS Speedo Swimming Championships, being held in Toronto, Ont., Feb. 20-22. For the second year in a row, Vikes swimmer Keegan Zanatta was the first Vike to reach the podium, swimming to a bronze medal finish in the men's 200-metre freestyle.  Nicholas Sinclair finished 16th in the same event.

Vike Richard Bourgeois advanced from Thursday morning's 100-metre preliminaries to finish eighth overall, overcoming an early kick that broke the surface of the water to touch in a time 1:02.52. Teammate Jon McKay finished in 12th in the men's 400-metre individual medley while Vikes Ian Mattock and Adam Holme finished 17th and 22nd in the same race, respectively.

Two-time Olympian Stephanie Horner moved up from her 11th place finish in the preliminaries of the 400-metre free relay to finish in ninth place with a time of 4:42.55. Teammate Jennifer Short finished 16th overall in women's 100-metre breaststroke with a time of 1:12.98, while Vikes Jordan Stariha and Sarah Galbraith placed 18th and 25th, respectively.

"We had a great swim from Jennifer Short," said Vizsolyi. "She struggled to make the standard, almost didn't make the trip and then she got a second swim and then dropped a second and half in the 100 breast. That was a great swim to start the meet."

In the 400-metre relay, the Vikes women placed 13th with a time of 3:54.63, while the men placed 12th after finishing in a time of 3:26.22. UVic finished the first day of competition in 13th place on the women's side with 24 points, while the men sit eighth with 43.

The Vikes will continue competition at the 2014 CIS Speedo Swimming Championships, Feb. 21 at the University of Toronto. Preliminaries begin at 10:00 a.m., while finals begin at 6:00 p.m., PST. Race finals will be streamed live at www.cis_sic.tv

*Credit to James Nielsen of vikes.uvic.ca