Vikes earn bronze at Canada West meet

*See Original Story Here* LETHBRIDGE – After three exhausting days of racing, the University of Victoria Vikes made their way back to the island with bronze medals in both men's and women's team standings, along with 17 individual medals. The men finished with 451 points, while the women finished with 529.

This marked the third-straight year the men left with the bronze in the team event, while for the women, it was the first time since the 2010-11 Canada West meet that they took home bronze.

Ethan Phillips enjoyed a strong final day of competition and was given the Vikes Swimmer of the Day honours by assistant coach Ryan Clouston.

His best time occurred in the 400-metre freestyle, where he won the B Final by improving two seconds from his preliminary race.

"Ethan had a very hard preliminary swim in that race and he identified where he could have done better in the morning and worked through things to fix those errors by the time the night swim rolled around. He was a very tough competitor for us this weekend and fought through a long weekend of tiring races," said Clouston.

Also earning recognition for a solid weekend of racing was Danielle Hanus, who earned seven medals for the Vikes in Lethbridge. She wrapped up the weekend with a gold in the 200m butterfly, set a Canada West record in the 100m butterfly (57.57 seconds, also gold) and helped the women's 4x100m individual medley relay team win silver. For her efforts, she was named the female Swimmer of the Meet by the Canada West.

Hanus, joined by with Lauren Crisp, Jamie Hellard and Alexandria Hedges, set a Vikes record in the relay (won silver). The Newmarket, Ont., swimmer also set a Vikes record in the 100m backstroke.

She was also named a Canada West First Team All-Star. Joining her was Josh Zakala.

Bailey Espersen, Hellard and members of the women's 4 x 100m relay team were all honoured as Second Team All-Canadians.

Espersen also earned a pair of medals this afternoon, too.  First, he won bronze in the 200m breaststroke (2:15.77) and then helped the men's 4 x 100m relay team secure another bronze. 

Zakala was also featured on that men's relay team that also contained Daniel Greer and Eric Hedlin. Zakala also took the bronze in the 400m freestyle in 3:52.89.

The Vikes now shift their focus to the annual Christmas Cracker meet on Dec. 6 at the Saanich Commonwealth Pool. They have a few smaller meets in January to fine tune their racing before the U SPORTS National Championship meet gets underway at the Saanich Commonwealth Pool in February.

2019 Canada West Award Winners

Swimmers of the Meet
Women: Danielle Hanus, VIC
Men: Alexander Pratt, UBC

Rookies of the Meet
Women: Anna Dumont-Belanger, UBC
Men: Raben Dommann, UBC

Student-Athlete Community Service
Women: Oliva Ellard, UBC

Coach of the Year
Women: Derrik Schoof, UBC
Men: Mike Blondal, Calgary
 
Team Standings (Final)
 
WOMEN
 
1. UBC, 905 pts.
2. Calgary, 812
3. Victoria, 529
4. Manitoba, 275
5. Alberta, 261
6. Lethbridge, 181
7. Regina, 51
8. Thompson Rivers, 19
 
MEN
 
1. UBC, 785 pts.
2. Calgary, 780
3. Victoria, 451
4. Alberta, 335
5. Regina, 297
6. Lethbridge, 259
7. Manitoba, 180
8. Thompson Rivers, 100 

DAY 3 Medalists

Women's 200 Butterfly
1. Danielle Hanus, VIC (2:10.16)
2. Josie Field, UBC (2:14.35)
3. Kirsten Douglas, UBC (2:14.35)

Men's 200 Butterfly
1. Etienne Paquin-Foisy, REG (1:59.91)
2. Dmitriy Lim, UBC (2:00.68)
3. Emil Goin, CGY (2:02.52)
 
Women's 100 Free
1. Kelsey Wog, MAN (54.20) *Broke Canada West record
2. Hoi Lam Tam, UBC (54.67)
3. Quincy Brozo, UBC (55.21)
 
Men's 100 Free
1. Alexander Pratt, UBC (49.56)
2. Anthon Iliouchetchev MAN (50.26)
3. Kier Przyswitt ALB (50.80)
 
Women's 200 IM
1. Hillary Metcalfe, UBC (2:15.04)
2. Allison McCloy, CGY (2:16.54)
3. Olivia Ellard, UBC (2:18.04)
 
Men's 200 IM
1. Rob Hill, CGY (1:59.96)
2. Brian Palaschuk, REG (2:01.56)
3. Brodie Young, UBC (2:03.00)
 
Women's 100 Backstroke
1. Danielle Hanus, VIC (57.57) * Broke Canada West Record
2. Megan Mozill, ALB (1:00.52)
3. Olivia Ellard, UBC (1:00.94)
 
Men's 100 Backstroke
1. Nicolas Duke, UBC (54.20)
2. Jarod Tsang, CGY (54.87)
3. Chris Alexander, LET (54.95)
 
Women's 200 Breaststroke
1. Kelsey Wog, MAN (2:22.78)
2. Bree Crookshanks, REG (2:28.56)
3. Madison Macor, CGY (2:30.37)
 
Men's 200 Breaststroke
1. Jaren LeFranc, UBC (2:13.54)
2. Benjamin Blackmon, CGY (2:14.27)
3. Bailey Espersen, VIC (2:15.77)
 
Women's 400 Freestyle
1. Danica Ludlow, CGY (4:10.73)
2. Megan Dalke, UBC (4:12.37)
3. Marit Anderson, CGY (4:13.24)
 
Men's 400 Freestyle
1. Alexander Pratt, UBC (3:48.43)
2. Peter Brothers, CGY (3:51.38)
3. Josh Zakala, VIC (3:52.89)
 
Women's 4 X 100 Medley Relay
1. UBC (Olivia Ellard, Hillary Metcalfe, Kirsten Douglas, Hoi Lam Tam) 4:06.77
2.VIC (Lauren Crisp, Jamie Hellard, Danielle Hanus, Alexandria Hedges) 4:09.31
3. MAN (Dora Modrcin, Kelsey Wog, Jamie Alexiuk, Georgia Pengilly) 4:10.74
 
 
Men's 4 X 100 Medley Relay
1. UBC (Nicolas Duke, Jaren LeFranc, Dmitriy Lim, Alexander Pratt) 3:38.07
2. CGY (Robert, Hill, Benjamin Blackmon, Emil Goin, Paul Latkovic) 3:38.65
3. VIC (Josh Zakala, Bailey Espersen, Daniel Greer, Eric Hedlin) 3:43.13