Championships Swimming

Swimming

Championship Day 2: Hometown hero Hanus, Manitoba’s Wog, UBC’s Overholt headline Friday competition

U SPORTS Staff

Three women have stolen the show and carried over their dominating performances from Day 1 into Day 2 at the 2020 U SPORTS Swimming Championships at Saanich Commonwealth Place.

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With two gold medals in her back pocket from Day 1, hometown swimmer Danielle Hanus from the Victoria Vikes doubled down on Friday. Hanus got the night going by earning her third individual gold medal with a time of 1:01.29 in the women’s 100-metre backstroke.

“I can’t complain, it’s been so much fun racing here in front of the home crowd,” said Hanus. “This has been a surreal weekend.”

Hanus returned for the 200m butterfly, a U SPORTS event she has won twice in the past. Not only did she win her fourth individual gold, she also set the new U SPORTS record by nearly a full second. Her four golds tie a U SPORTS individual medal record. However, she can only compete in one relay event on Saturday.

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After completing the grand slam in the 100m breaststroke on Thursday night, Manitoba’s Kelsey Wog won the women’s 200m breaststroke (by nearly 11 seconds) for the third consecutive year with her U SPORTS record-setting time of 2:22.42.

Not to be outdone was one of UBC’s top swimmers, 2016 Olympian Emily Overholt. She also won a pair of individual golds on Thursday, along with a gold in the 4x100m freestyle relay. Overholt picked up her third individual gold of the meet when she turned it on in the final 200m of the 400m freestyle, as she caught and surpassed Calgary’s Danica Ludlow to finish at the top of the podium (4:10.27). For Overholt, it was the second straight year she won gold in the event, after setting the U SPORTS last year with a time of 4:03.43.

“(I was) really focused on getting a win for our team,” said Overholt. “I’ve developed a great relationship with them. It’s been so much fun racing with this team.”

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Overholt capped off the evening with a gold in 4x200m freestyle relay.

In the first men’s event of the night, Markus Thormeyer of UBC completed the U SPORTS grand slam in the men’s 100m back by winning his fourth career gold in a time of 53.51, which was also a new U SPORTS long course record. Earlier in the morning, he set the U SPORTS short course record in the same event with a time of 51.57.

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In his final event of the day, Thormeyer added to his medal collection with a gold in the 4x200m freetyle relay.

Thormeyer’s teammate, Jaren LeFranc defended his national title in the men’s 200m breaststroke with a time of 2:15.49.

The Toronto Varsity Blues women’s program entered Day 2 atop the team standings even though they didn’t capture one gold on the first night of final races. That all changed in the third event when Hannah Genich outlasted the competition in the 50m butterfly with her time of 27.31.

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Alberta won their first medal of the meet in the men’s 50m butterfly, when Kier Przyswitt (who was in lane 7) edged out Dmitriy Lim of UBC (who was in lane 8) by 2/100ths of a second.

“I had no idea (how close of a race it was),” said Przyswitt. “I just went right through the wall and hoped for the best.”

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In his final U SPORTS meet, Davide Casarin of the Ottawa Gee-Gees defended his gold medal in the men’s 400m freestyle with a time of 3:54.59. On Thursday night, he won silver in the 200m freestyle.

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To wrap up the night, Brock’s Celine Funk and Ottawa’s Gordon Forest won the Student-Community Awards. Funk, a fourth-year swimmer with the Badgers, carried an 85 per cent average in her medical science studies, while Forest is on the Dean’s List with a 9.38 out of 10 GPA for his work in the accounting program.

Full Results

Full Results (PDF)

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