POINTE CLAIRE, QUE – It was an eventful Day 2 at the U SPORTS swim championships, Friday. A second men's record tumbled, while host McGill University provided the cherry on top with an inspired come-from-behind finish before a frenzied full house in the last event of the soiree. The three-day meet, held at the Pointe Claire Aquatic Centre in Montreal's West Island suburb, concludes on Saturday.
 
LINK TO WOMEN'S RECAP

Chris Weeks of Mount Pearl, Newfoundland-Labrador, is believed to be the first swimmer from the Memorial University Sea-Hawks to break a U SPORTS championship meet record, erasing a nine-year-old long-course mark in the 50-metre butterfly. Weeks was clocked in a sizzling 23.90 seconds, to finish atop the podium well ahead of UBC's Siu Lun Ho (24.23) and McGill's Hazem Issa (24.44). Weeks broke the 2015 standard set by UBC's Coleman Allen (24.04).
 
"I'm feeling pretty good right now," said Weeks, a general studies freshman who is two days shy of his 19th birthday. "Going into the race, I was just thinking about executing everything that I was practicing in my training, try my hardest and really fight for that win. I was actually hoping to break the record in the morning (prelims), so I was pretty disappointed (when that didn't happen) and was kind of losing sight of it. I knew in my morning swim that there were a couple of things that I needed to fix and work on. I just stayed with the program and fought really hard. I thought that it was going to be a close race between me and a couple of guys and I just pushed right to the finish."
 
The other neat story of the day was in the men's 4x200 freestyle relay, where McGill rallied from fourth-place after the leadoff leg to capture gold in 7:32.29. The Redbirds edged out Toronto (7:32.99) and UBC (7:33.68).
 
The winning quartet, which hasn't lost in four races this season, featured 20-year-old freshman Artiom Volodin of Montreal in the leadoff leg. He was followed by junior Pablo Collin of Marseille (France), senior Bruno Dehem-Lemelin of nearby Kirkland, Que., and rookie Mats Baradat, from the town of Hyères, in France. Baradat also claimed bronze in the 400 freestyle.
 
For Collin, it was his third medal in two days, including another gold in the 200 free and silver in the 4x100 free relay.
 
"I would have been happy with any medal in this relay," said an ecstatic McGill head coach Peter Carpenter, who was asked why he didn't put his best swimmer in the anchor spot. "My strategy all along was to put Pablo in the second leg because I want us to be at least in the race, if not the lead, after two legs.
 
"Art did a good job in leadoff but unfortunately, he dealt with a cramp at the 150m mark because he had to swim a tough double with a 400 free and a 200 free on the relay tonight. He barely made it to the wall, then Pablo goes in and killed it. Then we had Bruno go in with the lead that Pablo was able to get. Bruno was excited and took it out hard. He built a lead that I think crushed the spirit of the others. It was risky because he was hurting pretty good on the last 75 metres but he managed to get to the wall and give Mats enough of a cushion to hold off the guys from UBC and Toronto."
 
U of T led the Day 2 medal count with a pair of golds, three silvers and a bronze, upping their meet-leading total to three, eight and two, respectively. UBC is rank next in the medal table with eight, including two golden and one silver. The Varsity Blues increased their lead in the team standings and have 788 points, compared to second-place Calgary (623.5). But the Dinos now have a pair of predators lurking, with UBC (612.5) and McGill (600) gaining ground rapidly. Ottawa is a distant fifth of the 28 participating schools, with 35.5 points.  
 
The Varsity Blues were golden in the 50 free, with Liam Weaver (23.72), a junior from Calgary.
 
"It feels great, the last two years I went in (ranked) first and ended up second," said Weaver. "So, I was finally able to get my hand on the wall first and I'm super happy."
 
U of T also grabbed the 200 individual medley, won by sophomore Ben Loewen (2:03.66) of Toronto
 
"I'm super pumped," said Lowen. "I felt really good and got on the podium with a current teammate (bronze medalist Jacob Gallant) and a former teammate (Calgary's Charlie Skalenda), which is really cool… I really feel like it's our time right now. We've been under construction for quite a while but we've got an absolute group of dogs and if we keep swimming the way we are, we (will be) the team to beat."

UBC's two gold medal performances were produced by Liam Clawson-Honeyman of Gatineau, Que., in the 400 free (3:58.16) and in the 100 backstroke, where Hugh McNeill of Langley, B.C., posted a winning time of 55.44.
 
"I was just awesome, I can't believe it," said Clawson-Honeyman. "I had so many expectations, so to see myself in first, that was really great."
 
Rounding out the gold medal count was Ottawa's Hugo Lemesle, a finance junior from Nice, in France, who took the 200 breast (2:14.80).
 
"I'm feeling really good, I'm really proud of what I have done all year," said Lemesle, who also won gold in the 100 breast on Day 1, to go along with one silver and two bronze medals in two previous trips to Nationals. "I feel like the hard work has finally paid off. The game plan strong and smooth for the first 50 metres, try to stay with (the leaders) and after that, I just wanted to race hard and if I had more (energy) left in the last 50, then just go full out."
 
The meet concludes on Saturday with morning prelims at 9:30 a.m. (Eastern), followed by long distance events at 3 p.m., a tribute to graduating seniors at 5:15 p.m., evening finals at 5:30 p.m. and an awards ceremony at 8 p.m., where the swimmers of the meet will be announced and the championship banner will be presented. All schedules, live results, race entries, meet recaps and related information can be found at this website link.
 
All sessions are streamed live in English on CBC GEM and cbcsports.ca  and in French on Radio-Canada.ca/Sports and ICI Tou.TV
 
LINK TO WOMEN'S RECAP


TEAM STANDINGS (after Day 2)
 
WOMEN: 1. UBC, 1,003 points; 2. Toronto, 965.5; 3. Calgary, 587.5; 4. McGill, 497.5; 5. Western, 236.5; 6. McMaster, 154; 7. Victoria, 142.5; 8. Manitoba, 137.5; 9. Alberta, 124; 10. Dalhousie, 115; 11. (tie) Waterloo and Lethbridge, 95; 13. Montréal, 84.5; 14. Acadia, 76; 15. Laval, 64; 16. Guelph, 62; 17. Ottawa, 44; 18. Brock, 36; 19. Regina, 25.5; 20. Sherbrooke, 22; Mount Allison, 5; 22. Queen's, 1.
 
MEN: 1. Toronto, 788 points; 2. Calgary, 623.5; 3. UBC, 612.5; 4. McGill, 600; 5. Ottawa, 350.5; 6. Western, 268; 7. Alberta, 244; 8. Waterloo, 183; 9. (tie) Victoria and Laval, 121.5; 11. Dalhousie, 96; 12. McMaster, 87; 13. Lethbridge, 76; 14. Laurier, 71; 15. York, 64; 16. Carleton, 50; 17. Acadia, 47; 18. Memorial, 46; 19. Sherbrooke, 44; 20. Manitoba, 41.5; 21. UQTR, 17; 22. Regina, 16; 23. Montréal, 15; 24. UNB, 11; 25. Mount Allison, 5.
 
RECORD BROKEN:
 
Men's 50-metre butterfly (long course): Chris Weeks, Memorial, 23.90 seconds (Old record: 24.04 by Coleman Allen of UBC in 2015).
 
INDIVIDUAL MEDALISTS:
 
WOMEN
 
50 freestyle: 1. Ainsley McMurray, Toronto, 25.68 seconds; 2. Julianne Moore, Calgary, 26.14; 3. Shaunna Walker-Dejong, McMaster, 26.44.
 
200 breaststroke: 1. Alexanne LePage, Calgary, 2:27.92; 2. Shona Branton, Western, 2:31.12; 3. Amaris Peng, UBC 2:31.71.
 
400 freestyle: 1. Anna Hein, Toronto, 4:22.48; 2. Naomie Lo, McGill, 4:22.71; 3. Mahaylia Vatars, Toronto, 4:23.09.
 
100 backstroke: 1. Bridget Burton, UBC, 1:02.16; 2. Katelyn Schroeder, Toronto, 1:02.63; 3. Haley Klenk, Toronto, 1:02.76.
 
200 individual medley: 1. Nina Mollin, Toronto, 2:18.35; 2. Anna Dumont-Belanger, UBC, 2:18.50; 3. Emma Spence, UBC, 2:18.72.
 
50 butterfly: 1. Eloise Allen, UBC, 26.86; 2. Anaïs Arlandis, Montréal, 27.63; 3. Ainsley McMurray, Toronto, 27.85.
 
4x200 freestyle relay: 1. UBC (Anna Dumont-Belanger, Brooklyn Wiens, Jade Lo, Rosalie Davidson), 8:21.95; 2. Calgary (Alexanne LePage, Hannah Johnsen, Marit Anderson, Emily deJager), 8:25.42; 3. Toronto (Hailey Klenk, Teagan McKenzie, Mahaylia Vatars, Ainsley McMurray), 8:27.95.
 
 
 
MEN
 
50 freestyle: 1. Liam Weaver, Toronto, 22.72 seconds. 2. Malachy Belkhelladi, McGill, 23.04; 3. Allen Zheng, Waterloo, 23.06.
 
200 breaststroke: 1. Hugo Lemesle, Ottawa, 2:14.80; Jacob Gallant, Toronto, 2:18.77; Ethan Hemeon, UBC, 2:18.47.
 
400 freestyle: 1. Liam Clawson-Honeyman, UBC, 3:58.16; 2. Nathan Versluys, Calgary, 3:58.43; 3. Mats Baradat, McGill 3:59.51.
 
100 backstroke: 1. Hugh McNeill, UBC, 55.44 seconds; 2. Andrew Herman, Toronto, 55.84; 3. Richie Stokes, Calgary, 56.55.
 
200 individual medley: 1. Benjamin Loewen, Toronto, 2:03.66; 2. Charlie Skalenda, Calgary, 2:05.32; 3. Jacob Gallant, Toronto, 2:05.72.
 
50 butterfly: 1. Chris Weeks, Memorial, 23.90 seconds (new U SPORTS record); 2. Siu Lun Ho, UBC, 24.23; 3. Hazem Issa, McGill, 24.44.
 
4x200 freestyle relay: 1. McGill (Artiom Volodin, Pablo Collin, Bruno Dehem-Lemelin, Mats Baradat), 7:32.29; 2. Toronto (Max Tambling, Jack Li, Brendan Oswald, Bill Dongfang), 7:32.99; 3. UBC (Hugh McNeill, Olivier Risk, Liam Clawson-Honeyman, Jake Gaunt), 7:33.68.
 
SOURCE
Earl Zukerman
Sports Information Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-983-7012 (cell.)
www.mcgillathletics.ca
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca