Savard, MacLean among top seeds after day 1 prelims of Canadian Trials

2014 Canadian Trials

• April 2-5 in Victoria, British Columbia
• Live results
• Live stream of the meet available here
• Pan Pacs Selection Criteria
• Psych Sheets 
• Our pre-meet link collection can be found here

Women’s 50 Fly

Canadian National record-holder Katerine Savard qualified first in the women’s 50 fly in what seemed like a pretty smooth morning swim. Her 26.66 is two tenths up on California commit Noemie Thomas of UBCD, who was 26.83.

Those two look like the class of the field so far, the only swimmers under 27, but there are some tough competitors behind them as well. PPO’s Sandrine Mainville (27.13) and NYAC’s Michelle Williams (27.18) are within striking distance of 26-seconds, plus 30-year-old veteran Audrey Lacroix sits fifth and Texas A&M collegiate star Paige Miller is sixth.

Men’s 50 Fly

On the men’s side, the Canadian record-holder also rose to the top of the field. Kelly Aspinall of UBCD went 24.23 to take the top seed, and still has seven tenths to drop from his national record set last summer.

Cameron Kidd is the second seed, going 24.64 and taking a couple tenths off his seed time. Joining that duo under 25 was Gamal Assaad of Oakville, who went 24.80 in prelims.

U.S. collegiate swimmer Henrik Lindau went 25.03 for the third seed, with Owen Daly just behind at 25.08.

Women’s 200 Free

Coming off of an outstanding NCAA season for national champs Georgia, Etobicoke Swimming (ESwim)’s Brittany MacLean took the top 200 free seed, goin 1:59.14. She did most of her prelims work on the final 50, dipping back under 30 for the final split. Fellow NCAA swimmer Alyson Ackman (of Penn State University) sits second at 2:00.29. Her Pointe-Claire teammate Samantha Cheverton is 2:00.43, just behind in third place.

Kennedy Goss is just .03 back at fourth place, continuing a heat that is very closely-packed coming out of prelims. Emily Overholt is a tenth back at 2:00.58, and Jackie Keire another tenth back of that.

Men’s 200 Free

It was Island Swim Club’s Ryan Cochrane who took the top seed in the men’s 200 free, cutting eight tenths from his 7th-place seed to go 1:49.65. Tonight he’ll have to contend with UBCD’s Coleman Allen, who dropped a second-and-a-half to move from the 10th seed to second.

Cochrane’s ISC teammate Alec Page is third in 1:50.19, with Allen’s teammate Stefan Milosevic just behind at 1:50.22.

Also into the top 8 are Michigan and Danish star Anders Nielsen (1:50.39), his college teammate Hassaan Abdel-Khalik (1:50.64), plut Abdel-Khalik’s younger brother Aly (1:50.42) and California collegiate swimmer Jeremy Bagshaw of Island Swim Club (1:50.82).

Women’s 100 Back

Sinead Russell, representing the Norfolk Hammerheads, took the top seed in the women’s 100 back, going 1:00.81 to beat out Cascade’s Brooklyn Snodgrass (1:01.02) as both women get back into action after successful NCAA runs.

Russell, who swims for Florida, has the field’s best back-half split at 30.8, while Snodgrass (an IU Hoosier) was the fastest going out with a 29.80 on her first 50 split.

Hilary Caldwell sits third in 1:01.77, with Genevieve Cantin and Dominique Bouchard just behind in the 1:02s.

Men’s 100 Back

Russell Wood took the top seed in the men’s 100 backstroke in 55.13, followed by Matthew Swanston (55.53) as the 2nd seed.

Expect Charlie Francis, who cruised to a 56.07 in prelims, to compete with those two for the title in finals. He and Wood are the only two Canadians since the beginning of 2013 to go better than 55 seconds in this event.

Women’s 200 Breast

Kierra Smith, who just finished up her season at the University of Minnesota finishing sixth in the 200y breaststroke at NCAA’s, took the top seed in the 200m breast with a time of 2:26.59. She was followed by Point-Claire Swim Club’s Ashley McGregor in 2:28.18. McGregor finished just ahead of Smith at NCAA’s with a fifth place finish.

Martha McCabe took the third seed in 2:29.13; expect her to be a huge factor in finals as she’s been a finalist in this event several times at international competitions including earning herself a bronze at the 2011 worlds.

Smith and McCabe will have to deal with Tera Van Beilen as well tonight who’s heading into finals as the fifth seed after posting a 2:29.59. Van Beilen and McCabe both represented Canada at worlds last year in this event. Van Beilen’s already been a 2:21.18 this year in short course meters at the CIS Championships so she could definitely be a major factor in tonights final.

Men’s 200 Breast

Coming off a seventh place finish at the NCAA’s in the 200y breaststroke for the University of Michigan, Richard Funk took the top seed in the 200m breaststroke with a time of 2:14.72.

Funk was followed by Igor Kozlovskij in 2:14.99. Kozlovskij is Lithuanian so he doesn’t have a chance of qualifying for the Canadian team. James Guest from Point-Claire Swim Club was third in 2:15.21.

Count on Jason Block from the University of Calgary swim club to also be quick in finals tonight after grabbing the sixth seed with a 2:16.68. Oakville’s Evan White will also be in the final after grabbing the seventh spot with a 2:16.87. White’s been on a hunt for national age-group records this season, so plan on seeing White keeping up with some of the older swimmers in tonight’s final.

Make sure to look at the links above for information about tonight’s finals session including live results and a live webcast.