2011-2012

The 2012 CIS Championships came to an end today in Montreal. 

Open water swimmer Zac Parkes managed to drop over 20 seconds off of his previous best time in the 1500 Freestyle, winning his morning heat and finishing 6^th overall with a time of 15:45.01. 

Also competing in the 1500 was Eric Stein, who similarly scored a seasonal best by over 20 seconds, with 16:06.38, to take 16^th place.

The 2012 CIS Championships continued today, with several strong performances and best times for the UVic swimmers competing.

Zac Parkes had two great swims in the 400 Freestyle, cutting four seconds off of his personal best time in the morning, and another four seconds off of that to win the consolation final in a time of 3:54.69.

With many of the UVic Olympic hopefuls taking this semester off, a smaller than usual Vikes team began competition at CIS Championships in Montreal today.  

The Vikes got off to a bit of a shaky start, including a setback for Siobhan Newell, who injured her shoulder and missed out on the 4x100 Freestyle relay.

Rookies Zac Parkes and Stephanie Taekema both scored personal bests this morning as well, in the 200 Freestyle and 100 Breaststroke respectively, with their best events still to come. 

A few of the swimmers took advantage of the Pro-D-day on the Friday and went for a ski on Mt Washington on the way to the Campbell River meet. They went from the ski hill straight to warm-up with the Campbell River team on Friday night, then onto the meet for Saturday and Sunday.

Back on February 10-12, eight PCS swimmers, their coaches and parents made the trip across the water to compete in the 2012 SwimBC AA Short Course Championships in Chilliwack.  The PCS team met some solid competition, with clubs from all across BC sending approximately 350 swimmers to the meet.  The PCS team was represented by: Raymond Chou, Nathan Howe, Lia Lancaster, Fionnuala McKenna, Nick Nolt, Rachel Sawchuk, Riley Tesch, and Victoria von Sacke

Pacific Coast Swimming is hosting a spring break camp March 19th – 23rd!  Each day includes 2.5 hours of swim instruction along with other activities such as bowling and rock climbing.

Registration cut off is March 5th, but hurry, because limited spots are available. Cost of camp is $175, and extended hours are available for an additional charge.

Saanich Commonwealth Pool
March 19th – 23rd
9:00am – 3:00pm

UVPCS swimmer Richard Weinberger cruised to yet another victory this weekend in the Australia Open Water National Championships.  Competing with some of the best open water swimmers from around the world, Weinberger pulled off an astonishing 42 second victory in the 10km.

Day One:
Alex Kierstead advanced to youth final in 6th with a personal best.

Day Two:
Jon McKay set a new club record in 15-17 boys 400 IM breaking Nick Sinclair's record. Jon was 6th in the final in 4:31.89 narrowly missing the senior national standard.

From Coach Rod

Canada has never qualified a swimmer for any open-water event at the Olympics. Don't bet against Richard Weinberger of Victoria being the first Canuck to do so.

The rapidly emerging 10K star continues leaving a splashy imprint on the path to the 2012 London Summer Games. So much so he may be edging in to join pool swimmer Ryan Cochrane, triathlete Paula Findlay and rowers David Calder, Malcolm Howard and Lindsay Jennerich as an Island-based podium threat for London 2012.

Richard Weinberger nabbed the silver medal today in the last of his week-long stretch of races, with a stellar performance in the 10km in Argentina.  His main competition was once again World Champion Spiros Gianniotis, though this time Richard was even closer to touching him out for the gold medal.

The race was so tight that eight swimmers were challenging for the top spots up until the last 200m, with the last 75m coming down to Gianniotis and Weinberger, the difference between them being less than a second.