Annamay Pierse Drops Canadian Record in 100 Breast at CIS Championships

VANCOUVER, Canada, February 22. UBC's Annamay Pierse (Edmonton, Alta.) got the 2008 Canadian Interuniversity Sport swimming championships off to a rocking start on Thursday night, blazing to a Canadian and CIS championship record in the women's 100-meter breaststroke with a time of 1:07.12 in front of a home crowd at the UBC Aquatic Centre.

The performance eclipsed Rhiannon Leier's previous short course national record time of 1:07.30 set in 2003.

The long course Canadian record holder in the 100 and 200 breaststroke, Pierse can now add the short course edition to her impressive resume. Leading from start to finish, Pierse led UBC to a first, third, fourth, and sixth place performance in the 100 final. Rookie T-Bird Martha McCabe picked up a bronze in her first CIS race, finishing behind Pierse and Calgary's Taylor Peterson who claimed silver in a quick 1:08.26 to make her the second fastest CIS performer ever.

"I was really happy to win gold here in front of the home crowd" said Pierse. "This year is really important [with the Olympics set for Beijing in August] and it was great to go fast with Trials coming up soon and having just got back from a tough training camp in Hawaii."

Annamay's younger sister, Hanna, led an impressive group of her own, as the UBC women swept the 400 individual freestyle. The younger Pierse took gold with a time of 4:43.66 in just her second year at the CIS level. She was joined by T-Bird Rookies Rachelle Salli and Martha McCabe on the podium.

UVIC's MacKenzie Downing (Whitehorse, Yukon) was not to be left out of the festivities, as she toppled Audrey Lacroix's 2006 CIS championship record in the women's 100 butterfly with a time of 59.31. Downing downed two T-Birds on her way to gold, with hometown swimmers Erin Miller and Stephanie Nicholls rounding out the podium.

Jennifer Carroll, swimming for UQTR, just missed her own CIS mark in the women's 50 backstroke in winning her fourth medal, and third gold, in the event. The only blemish of Carroll's career came in a loss to CIS swimmer of year Erin Gammel of Calgary in 2006.

Other winners on the night for the women were Laval's Chanelle Charron-Watson (200 freestyle) and the Dinos claiming gold in the 4×100 freestyle relay.

The women's race after Day 1 has the hometown Thunderbirds atop the standings, leading Calgary 227-189. University of Victoria is a distant third with 107 points.

On the men's side, it was a night for repeat champions.

In the first event of the evening, fifth-year Calgary star Chad Hankewich won gold in the 200 freestyle, topping the field in 1:47.05. This was Hankewich's fifth medal in the event over his CIS career, having won gold in 2005, silver in 2006 and 2007 (behind UBC great Brian Johns), and bronze in his rookie season back in 2003, while swimming for Regina.

Calgary leads the men's team competition after the first of three days after scoring an impressive 262 points. The Rouge et Or and UBC find themselves in a tight battle for second, with Laval holding a slim advantage, 177.5-177. Calgary has finished second for the last 10 years in the men's competition but look capable of a breakthrough performance this year.

"I'm pretty happy with our performance tonight", beamed Calgary boss Mike Blondal. "We got what we came for tonight on the men's side. Our rookies had some great swims and the veterans did what they had to do. Now we just have to keep our focus for the rest of the meet and we will see what we can do."

UBC's captain Callum Ng dominated his main event, picking up his fourth consecutive gold in the men's 50 backstroke. His time of 24.48 was just off the CIS championship record and put him nearly three quarters of a second ahead of his nearest adversary.

In one of the biggest surprises of the evening, the Rouge et Or's Nicholas Murray and T-Bird rookie Rory Biskupski upset Ng in the 100 butterfly. Murray took gold in a swift 53.61 just ahead of a hard charging Biskupski who nearly overtook both Murray and Ng on the final 25 metres but came up short touching for silver with a time of 53.74 to Ng's 53.75.

Other winners on the men's side were Calgary's Chris Tobin (100 breaststroke), UBC's Jordan Hartney (400 individual medley), and the Dinos claimed victory in the 4×100 freestyle relay.

Special thanks to the Swimming Canada for contributing this report.

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