February 24, 2006

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Day 1 CIS championships: UBC's Johns, Montreal's Lacroix shine

Brian Johns, UBC

QUEBEC CITY (CIS) - University of British Columbia's Brian Johns and University of Montreal's Audrey Lacroix set new individual meet records on the first day of the 2006 Canadian Interuniversity Sport swimming championships held at Laval University, while the UBC women and men both took commanding leads in their quest for their ninth consecutive team banners.

As expected, Johns, a 23-year-old from Richmond, B.C. was the star of the first day of competition in Quebec City, establishing a new mark in the 200-metre freestyle and adding gold medals in the 400m individual medley and the 4 x 100m freestyle relay.

An Olympian in both 2004 and 2000 who will represent Canada at the Commonwealth Games in Australia in three weeks, Johns, making his fourth appearance at the university nationals (2003, '02, '01), now has 23 golds and one silver in 24 races at the CIS meet. The CIS male swimmer of the year in 2002-03 and 2001-02, he is looking to become the first athlete in history, male or female, to capture the honour on three occasions.

Johns touched the wall in 1:45.52 in the 200 free to break the previous mark set by Olympian Rick Say (U of Calgary) in 2002 by three hundredths of a second. It was his first victory at the CIS meet in the event. He finished second in his only other try in his rookie season.

"I swam a really good tactical race in the 200 free," said Johns, who entered the weekend holding six CIS records, three in individual events and three in relays. "What I'm trying to do is start my races faster. In the past, I've had a tendency to relax at the start and then finish very strong. When you do that against world-class competition, you're in danger of falling behind quickly, and it's really hard to recover."

"I'm gearing up for the Commonwealth Games so obviously this is a good indication that my preparation is going pretty well," added Johns.

Lacroix, a sophomore from Pont-Rouge, Que. broke her own meet record in the 100m butterfly becoming the first woman in history to clock under one minute in the event at the CIS championships. She finished the race in 59.34 to better her 2005 time of 1:00.08.

"I'm really happy with my race," commented Lacroix, also a member of the Canadian Commonwealth Games team. "Last year it was nice to get the record but I was a little disappointed with my time."

A third championship mark fell on opening night as UBC's Hayley Doody of Calgary, Kelly Stefanyshyn of Winnipeg, Elizabeth Collins of Regina and Caitlin Meredith of Kamloops, B.C. finished the 4 x 100 freestyle relay in 3:42.63. Stefanyshyn, Meredith and Collins had teamed up with Jessica Deglau to set the previous record of 3:44.01 back in 2003.

Other gold medal winners on the women's side on day one included Laval's Chanelle Charron-Watson in the 200 free, UQTR's Jennifer Carroll in the 50 back, UBC's Haylee Johnson in the 100 breasstroke, and Thunderbird teammate Michelle Landry in the 400 individual medley. Carroll, the CIS swimmer of the year last season, also won the 50 back in 2005 setting a CIS mark of 27.57.

Charron-Watson and teammate Melanie Bouchard started the competition with a bang for the host Rouge et Or with a 1-2 finish in the championships very first event.

"It's so nice to win at home, especially in front of my parents who don't get to see me swim very often," said Charron-Watson, who won a bronze medal at the 2005 Summer Universiade in Turkey. "Hopefully this is only the beginning of a great weekend for our team."

On the men's side, UBC teammates Callum Ng in the 50 back, Scott Dickens in the 100 breast and Darryl Rudolf in the 100 fly swept the other individual gold medals. Rudolf, Ng and Aaron Blair teamed up with Johns for the first-place finish in the 4 x 100 free relay.

Dickens of Ancaster, Ont., who will also represent Canada at the Commonwealth Games in March, earned CIS-swimmer-of-the-year honours a year ago after sweeping the 50, 100 and 200m breaststroke events. Ng was also winning gold in his event for the second straight season.

In the team standings, the Thunderbird women hold a 75-point lead over Laval after 12 events, while the UBC men have an impressive 107-point advantage over Calgary.

The 2006 CIS swimming championships resume on Saturday with the preliminaries at 10 a.m. ET, and the finals at 5 p.m. ET.

TEAM STANDINGS AFTER DAY 1 (of 3)

Women
1. UBC 220 points
2. Laval 145
3. Calgary 121
4. Toronto 100
5. Montreal 96
6. Manitoba 65
7. Dalhousie 53
8. Victoria 40
9. Western Ontario 37
10. McGill 33
11. Guelph 32
12. McMaster 28
13. Queen's 24
14. UQTR 20
T15. Lethbridge 17
T15. Alberta 17
17. Regina 12
18. Wilfrid Laurier 7
T19. UNB 5
T19. Brock 5
21. Laurentian 4

Men
1. UBC 262 points
2. Calgary 155
3. Toronto 102
4. Western Ontario 101
5. Dalhousie 71
6. Montreal 61
7. Laval 52
8. UNB 36
T9. McGill 35
T9. Alberta 35
11. Waterloo 23
12. Laurentian 15
13. Guelph 12
14. McMaster 9
15. Lethbridge 7
16. Regina 6
T17. Sherbrooke 5
T17. UQTR 5
T17. Ottawa 5
20. Victoria 4
21. Manitoba 2

MEDALLISTS DAY 1 (of 3)

Women 200m Free
Chanelle Charron-Watson, Laval, 1:58.75
Mélanie Bouchard, Laval, 1:58.93
Audrey Lacroix, Montreal, 1:58.94

Men 200m Free
Brian Johns, UBC, 1:45.52 (CIS championship record)
Chad Hankewich, Calgary, 1:46.88
Kevin Gillespie, Calgary, 1:49.67

W 50m Back
Jennifer Carroll, UQTR, 28.67
Kiera Aitken, Dalhousie, 28.71
Landice Yestrau, Manitoba, 28.77

M 50m Back
Callum Ng, UBC, 24.67
Kurtis Miller, Western Ontario, 25.40
Robert Taylor, Western Ontario, 25.62

W 100m Breast
Haylee Johnson, UBC, 1:09.49
Michelle Laprade, Montreal, 1:10.26
Elizabeth Hendrick, Calgary, 1:10.39

M 100m Breast
Scott Dickens, UBC, 1:00.98
Chad Thiessen, UBC, 1:02.64
Marco Monaco, Toronto, 1:02.95

W 100m Fly
Audrey Lacroix, Montreal, 59.34 (CIS championship record)
Erin Miller, UBC, 1:00.22
Mackenzie Downing, Victoria, 1:00.64

M 100m Fly
Darryl Rudolf, UBC, 53.62
Chad Hankewich, Calgary, 53.92
Ian MacLeod, Toronto, 54.84

W 400m IM
Michelle Landry, UBC, 4:44.18
Chanelle Charron-Watson, Laval, 4:46.17
Carmen Block, UBC, 4:46.61

M 400m IM
Brian Johns, UBC, 4:17.88
Francois Castonguay, McGill, 4:24.16
Andy White, Dalhousie, 4:25.84

W 4 X 100m Free Relay
UBC (Hayley Doody, Kelly Stefanyshyn, Elizabeth Collins, Caitlin Meredith), 3:42.63 (CIS championship record)
Toronto, (Sasha Theron, Marci Bryon, Jen Porenta, Kate Plyley), 3 :47.60
Calgary (Laura Grant, Katelyn Murdoch, Elizabeth Hendrick, Andrea Baker), 3 :47.66

M 4 X 100m Free Relay
UBC (Darryl Rudolf, Callum Ng, Aaron Blair, Brian Johns), 3:20.16
Calgary (Kevin Gillespie, Willie Derban, Avi Silverberg, Chad Hankewich), 3:22.59
Western Ontario (Kurtis Miller, Brad Vanderkam, Ryan Atkison, Robe