Day three of the Speedo Eastern Canadian Championships paved way for four new Eastern records, the most set in one day so far at the competition. Age-group swimmers continued to swim fast and keep up with some of Canada’s best.
Tessa Cieplucha started off the meet with a victory in the 400m freestyle. The Oakville swimmer swam a 4:19.67 en route to gold in the 15&under event. Keira Brazeau won the 16&over 400m freestyle with a time of 4:14.59.
Osvald Nitski has been unstoppable all weekend. After winning the 200m breaststroke on day one, Nitski came back on day two to set a new meet record in the 400m IM. Tonight, Nitski picked up two more golds in the 16&under 400m freestyle and 100m fly. In the 400m freestyle Nitski went under the four minute mark to post a 3:56.99. The swimmer just barely beat second place finisher Etienne Paquin-Foisy who grabbed silver in 3:57.15. No other swimmers in the final broke four minutes. In the 100m fly Nitski took down Ajax swimmer Jabier Acevedo, posting a 54.68 to Acevedo’s 54.83 to take gold. That gold medal also gave Nitski another Eastern record, taking down Edward Liu’s previous mark of 55.39 from 2011.
In the men’s 17&over 400m freestyle, Austin Smith touched in at 3:54.63 to secure the win. Smith like Nitski won his version of the 400m IM last night.
The women’s 100m fly gold was silver was not even up for consideration in Danika Huizinga’s mind. Huizinga flew to the wall in 59.09 to win the event by over a second and a half. Mary-Sophie Harvey finished behind the Ajax swimmer (1:00.70) followed by Newmarket’s Danielle Hanus (1:00.79). All three swimmers were under the previous Eastern record of 1:01.42 set by Katerine Savard, one of the best flyers in the world, back in 2009. Hanus and Huizinga have been two of the top swimmers this meet, each racketing up quite a medal collection. Vanessa Charon won the women’s 16&over 100m fly.
Ivan Cocunubo won the 17&over 100m fly in 54.31 followed by Adrian VanderHelm in 55.05.
Hanus, who grabbed the bronze in the 100m fly, came out on top in the women’s 200m backstroker. The backstroke dominant swimmer won the event in 2:09.93 beating second place finisher Penny Oleksiak from the Toronto Swim Club by exactly two seconds. Hanus’ time was the fastest 100m backstroke of the night overall, the 16&over final was on by Toronto Swim Club’s Rebecca Stellino in 2:12.12.
Acevedo was denied a gold for the second time tonight, this time in the men’s 16&under 200m backstroke. Liam Veregin won the event in 2:01.48 followed by Will Dickson in 2:02.43 and Acevedo in 2:02.78. The swim of the night however might have to go to Matthew Swanston, the winner of the 17&over final. Swanston, 22, stormed the field with a 1:56.41 to break his own meet record of 1:56.58 that he set five years ago. Swanston is currently one of the best backstrokers in Canada.
Sofia Carnevale from the Etobicoke Swim Club won the 15&under 50m breaststroke in 32.67. Carnevale won the 100m last night and earned herself a silver in the 200m breaststroke on day one. Amber Lefler from the Windsor Essex Swim Team took the gold in the 16&over final with a time of 32.12.
Warren Mayer and Tyler Tong-McDermott were the only two swimmers to crack the 30-second barrier in the 16&under 50m breaststroke final. Mayer won the gold in 29.69 followed by Tong-McDermott in 29.79. Jake Armstrong took the gold in the 17&over final with an impressive time of 27.77. That time broke the meet record of 27.85 set by Chris Tobin two years ago.
The Windsor Essex Swim Team women won the 4x100m medley relay tonight by a huge margin, winning the event in 4:09.93 to Newmarket’s 4:16.11. The London Aquatic Club won the men’s relay with a time of 3:45.02 to take down the Elite men who’ve won every relay thus far.
The final day of competition starts tomorrow, click here for full meet results.