by Rich Cole
Story taken from UVic's "Martlet" newspaper

Students from around the countr packed their bathing suits, shaved their bodies and traveled to Commonwealth Place for the 2003 CIS Championships last weekend.

Hosted by UVic and their affiliate Pacific Coast Swimming (PCS), the competition offered Speedo-heads the weekend of a lifetime. The event's highlights included the shattering of 13 CIS records, not to mention one Canadian and one world record.

by Rich Cole
Story taken from UVic's "Martlet" newspaper

The Vikes' successful showing at Commonwealth pool last weekend illustrates the depth of the Varsity program, as UVic continues to dominate the CIS's year after year.

by Amber Goertzen, Vikes Sports Staff

by Pete Lewis - UVic Vikes Athletics and Recreation

by Pete Lewis - UVic Vikes Athletics and Recreation

Victoria, B.C. - Day one of the Canadian University Sport Swimming Championship saw over 30 teams with approximately 312 athletes converge on Saanich Commonwealth Place. The Vikes certainly made their presence felt in this pool of talent. Tension was high as several CIS records were broken, culminating in Brian Johns of UBC breaking a world record in the 400m individual medley.

Several members of Pacific Coast Swimming will head to snowy Regina this weekend to take part in the 2003 Western Canadian Championships and head coach Ron Jacks has some great expectations for this small group. "I am hoping that we can advance some of these guys past the national qualifying standard in their respective events" said Jacks."With the World Championship trials in Victoria this June it would be great to give them a few months to prepare by getting the standard this weekend.

Pacific Coast Swimming had a number of winners over the weekend at the 2003 Team Aquatic Supplies BC Senior Circuit. Christin Petelski (Breast), John Stamhuis (IM), Dave Creel (Distance Free) and Jesse Jacks (Fly) were all named the overall winners of the BC Senior Circuit in their respective categories.

Pacific Coast Swimming had it's first provincial record breaker this past weekend at the Wave Maker swim meet. Craig Dagnall broke the11-12 year old boys Provincial record for the 800 freestyle by over 20 seconds posting a time of 9:51.85.

Way to go Craig!!!

David Creel capped off a successful weekend at the PCS Wave Maker by breaking a 14 year old club record in the 800 freestyle. His winning time of 8:04.15 broke the Vikes and PCS record that was held by Brett Regan and had stood since the late 1980's. Creel split 4:01.72 for the first 400 and then came back extremely strong in 4:02.43.

The third PCS mini camp went off extremely well on the weekend with 29 swimmers attending the session. There were 13 coaches on deck helping the swimmers learn the best way to change strokes through the Individual Medley events.