Vikes Men in Second Place at the End of Day One

Original story by Natalie Wise at uvic.vikes.ca

VICTORIA, B.C. - At the end of day one of the 2013 Canada West Swimming Championships, hosted by the University of Victoria Vikes, the UVic men are sitting in second place with a points score of 172 after a stellar 1500-m freestyle performance by Alec Page (Cortes Island, BC), Eric Hedlin (San Diego, CA) and Will Brothers (Victoria, BC) as they earned first, second and third place.

At the end of day one of the 2013 Canada West Swimming Championships in Victoria, B.C. the University of Calgary Dinos take the lead on both the men’s and the women’s side with 193 and 190 points, respectively.

In second place for the men is host team the University of Victoria Vikes with 172 points. The defending CIS Champions the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds sit in third with 170.5. For the women, the Thunderbirds round out day one in second place with 178.5 points and the University of Alberta Pandas are in third with 149.5. 

Olympian Savannah King, racing for UBC, set the tone in the first race of the meet as she broke her own Canada West record in the women's 800-m freestyle with a time of 8:26.98. She was the clear winner as Lindsay Delmar of the Calgary Dinos swam into second place at 8:42.68 with fellow Dino Julianne Brown just a few seconds behind at 8:48.39. 

The second race of the day was the men's 1500-m freestyle and for the Vikes it was an impressive clean-sweep of first, second and third. The youngest member of Canada's men's swimming contingent at the London Olympics, Page came out on top to break the previous Canada West record of 15:18.83 with his time of 15:04.48. Hedlin took sliver at 15:14.31 and it was a bronze medal finish for Brothers at 15:23.42. 

Page would go on to find himself on the podium two more times as he came second in the men's 50-m butterfly and helped the UVic men's 800-m freestyle relay team to a second-place finish, besting defending champions UBC with a time of 7:22.45. 

On the women's side the most successul individual finish for the Vikes came from fifth-year Eleanora Dalling (Vancouver, BC) in the 50-m backstroke as she placed fourth with a time of 30.51. Repeating last year's outcome in the 800-m freestyle relay, the UVic women landed fourth.

"It's been a great start to the meet and I'm really pleased with how everybody's performing," said head coach of the Vikes swim teams, Peter Vizsolyi. "It's going to be a good weekend."

The 2013 Canada West Championships kick off again tomorrow morning at Saanich Commonwealth Pool at 10:00 a.m. with the 50-m freestyle.