National SC Champs - Creel qualifies for Rome Worlds - 2 BC Records for Sinclair

Swimmers Ryan Clouston, David Creel, MacKenzie Downing, Cody Flegel, Nicholas Sinclair, David Vizsolyi and Richard Weinberger with coaches Ron Jacks and Peter Vizsolyi are representing UVic-PCS at the National Short Course Championships in Toronto this week. The competition runs from Wednesday March 11th through Sunday March 15th at the University of Toronto. Most races are preliminaries and finals; the distance events 800 & 1500 Freestyle are timed finals, as are relays. The pool 5km event which takes place on Sunday is also a timed final.

Wednesday evening finals featured two UVic-PCS swimmers. MacKenzie Downing placed sixth in the 200 Butterfly A-final and Nicholas Sinclair won the 100 Backstroke B-final for ninth overall.

Nick’s 100 Backstroke time set a new Provincial Record for the 15-17 age group, breaking a record set in 2005, by 2008 Olympian Jake Tapp. Congratulations to Nick and his coaches!

Thursday night finals saw David Creel place fourth in the 800 Freestyle with a new UVPCS record by six seconds – congratulations to Dave and coaches! Also in finals tonight, Richard Weinberger finished 15th in the 800 Freestyle and MacKenzie Downing was 13th overall in the 50 Butterfly.

On Friday evening, Nicholas Sinclair won the 200 Backstroke B-final for ninth overall and his second Provincial Record (15-17) of the meet. Congratulations, Nick and coaches! Also in finals tonight, David Creel place tenth overall from the 400 Freestyle B-final and MacKenzie Downing was 14th overall in the 100 Butterfly.

Saturday evening brought David Creel 1500 Freestyle fourth place and his second UVPCS record. Dave broke the previous record by fourteen seconds - congratulations! Also in top-16, Richard Weinberger was 15th in the same race.

The Sunday pool 5 kilometer race earned David Creel a ticket to the 2009 World Championships in Rome this July. Congratulations Dave and coaches!! Dave placed second in the event, while Richard Weinberger was fifth.

As always, full details will be available on our results page.