T-Birds proceed to battle arduous on day two of Mel Zajac Jr. International Swim Meet

VANCOUVER – The motion didn’t decelerate on the penultimate day of the 2026 Mel Zajac Jr. International Swim Meet, with the Thunderbirds offering some good highlights amongst a plethora of top-tier racers.
 
Kai Lilienthal earned the UBC gold of the day, as he claimed victory in a very shut Men’s 100m Butterfly (53.39 seconds) – touching the wall simply one-hundredth of a second forward of Seattle Metropolitan Aquatic Club’s Charlie Cancelmo.
 
In addition to that first-place end, the T-Birds as a crew mixed for 4 silvers and three bronzes, with 9 totally different Thunderbird swimmers getting to face on the rostrum throughout the evening’s finals.
 
“There have been lots of really solid performances,” mentioned UBC head coach Derrick Schoof. “Of course, when you’re in a meet like this you’re going to have a few ups and a few downs along the way, but we’ve mostly had ups and we’ve competed hard and put up some good times.”
 

Kayla Sanchez was the lone T-Bird to have two top-three finishes on day two, coming in second within the Women’s 50m Freestyle (25.20) in addition to third within the 50m Backstroke (28.74). That latter race was received by Kylie Masse, who broke the meet file within the morning’s prelims with a time of 27.57, ending simply behind that mark with a 27.68 within the finals.

 

The group of different non-UBC Olympians continued to indicate their high quality, with Apollo Hess claiming gold within the Men’s 200m Breaststroke (2:13.81) and Josh Liendo incomes silver within the Men’s 50m Backstroke earlier than successful the 50m Freestyle (22.50) later within the evening.

 

Santo Condorelli completed third in that 50m Freestyle race (22.72), with UBC star Yuri Kisil reaching out to the wall simply forward of him with a time of twenty-two.62 to say silver behind Liendo.

 

Other UBC particular person podium finishes included Amaris Peng’s silver within the Women’s 200m Breaststroke (2:31.97), Wells Ginzer’s bronze within the Men’s 100m Butterfly (53.93, simply half a second behind Lilienthal and Cancelmo), and Justice Migneault’s bronze within the Men’s 200m Breaststroke (2:17.62). Coincidentally, that final race marked the second straight evening the place Migneault completed his breaststroke occasion in third place simply forward of teammate Sebastian van de Logt in fourth.

 

The UBC ladies’s relay crew of Sanchez, Emma O’Croinin, Jade Lo and Ruby Kehler earned the T-Birds’ last podium end of the evening within the Women’s 4x200m race (8:19.43). The T-Birds began out the race very robust however have been handed within the again half by the U.S. Junior National Team, ending up in second place.

 

With another day to go earlier than the meet concludes, the Thunderbirds will work to stay at their greatest in such a aggressive surroundings contained in the UBC Aquatic Centre.

 

“We want the athletes to have a good rest tonight, really make sure that they have a good warmup in the pool tomorrow, and get ready to race for a third day in a row which can be really challenging,” added Schoof. “It’s both mental and physical. The hard racing over the last couple days definitely adds up, so physically they will feel heavy in the morning and they’ll have to push through that.”

 

The identical as the primary two days, the preliminary races will start at 9:00 a.m., with the finals getting underway at 5:30 p.m. (PT).