Stellar competitors marks profitable first evening of Mel Zajac Jr. International Swim Meet

VANCOUVER – The 61st annual Mel Zajac Jr. International Swim Meet is now underway, with the primary of three nights full contained in the UBC Aquatic Centre.
 
The competitors was fierce within the pool, with a significant spotlight being the Men’s 50m Butterfly last, that includes a photograph end between three Olympians in Santo Condorelli (23.69 seconds), Josh Liendo (23.81), and former T-Bird Finlay Knox (24.07).
 
Amongst the crop of present Thunderbird athletes, Eloise Allen pulled off the lone particular person occasion win of the evening, incomes a hard-fought victory within the Women’s 100m Breaststroke (1:09.69). The quartet of Joel Blanco, Yuri Kisil, Frank Ho and Jake Gaunt later closed out the ultimate race of the day with an exhilarating win within the Men’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay.
 

Before the swimmers hit the water for the finals, there was first a ceremony to honour Mel Zajac Sr., the native businessman and prolific philanthropist who handed away final week on the age of 98. Zajac’s dedication to the Mel Zajac Jr. International Swim Meet (named in reminiscence of his late son) is a key motive as to how the meet has grown to grow to be such a significant occasion on the Canadian swimming calendar.

 

“Mel’s influence on this particular swim meet has been unlike any other meet in Canada, what he’s done here,” mentioned UBC head coach Derrick Schoof. “His assist of this meet has allowed us to convey top-quality athletes right here yearly, which exposes B.C. and Canadian athletes to the most effective swimmers on the earth, and it raises the extent of swimming right here in Vancouver.

 

“Mel was a fantastic proponent of swimming and he was such an amazing individual, and I know that his legacy is going to carry on for years and years to come.”

 

There had been loads of different of these top-quality athletes along with those already talked about above, with the contingent of non-UBC Canadian Olympians additionally together with Apollo Hess, who claimed first place within the Men’s 100m Breaststroke (1:01.51), and Kylie Masse, who completed second within the Women’s 50m Butterfly behind U.S. Junior National Team member Liberty Clark. Clark’s wonderful day additionally included breaking a meet document within the 200m Freestyle (1:57.64), which had stood since 2008.

 

Besides Allen, different particular person podium finishes for the T-Birds consisted of a trio of third-place marks. Emma O’Croinin did so within the Women’s 200m Freestyle (1:59.68), as did Justice Migneault within the Men’s 100m Breaststroke (1:02.55), ending simply over half a second forward of teammate Sebastian van de Logt. An identical story occurred within the Men’s 400m Medley, when Aiden Kirk (4:28.19) edged out Tanner Cole by lower than a second to take bronze.

 

Where the Thunderbirds shone brightest was within the 4x100m Freestyle Relays, as their glorious depth and teamwork powered them to a pair of nice performances. First, the ladies’s crew of O’Croinin, Allen, Kayla Sanchez and Bridget Burton pulled off a time of three:44.06, second solely behind the U.S. Junior National Team and over 5 seconds forward of third place.

 

Then got here the aforementioned males’s race, the place two T-Bird squads every went head-to-head with the Americans. The group of Blanco, Kisil, Ho and Gaunt pulled off a comeback win by simply six-tenths of a second (3:23.33), whereas the crew of Zachary Parise, Kai Lilienthal, Andrew Coombs and Wells Ginzer completed shut behind in third (3:25.87).

 

“We’re really excited about how well we just swam,” mentioned a cheerful Schoof after the races concluded. “Obviously the U.S. Junior National Team is always such a good team…so for us to be able to race them like that in our own pool, that was really exciting. I think it brought out the best in our guys because obviously we want to beat them.”

 

The motion continues contained in the Aquatic Centre tomorrow, with the preliminary races getting underway at 9:00 a.m. and the finals starting at 5:30 p.m. (PT).