VICTORIA – The University of Victoria Vikes got off to a great start this morning during the preliminary races on Day 1 at the U SPORTS National Swimming Championship with nine qualifying times for the A Finals later this evening at Saanich Commonwealth Place.

The Vikes enter the A Finals with the fourth-most qualifying times. The powerhouse University of British Columbia Thunderbirds lead the way with 15 entries. 

Leading the way was Danielle Hanus, who medalled in the women's 50-metre backstroke and 100-metre butterfly last year.

She shaved the slimmest of margins off her qualifying time to post the fastest time in the 50m back in 26.63. A few heats later, she was at it again, when she recorded the fastest time in the 100m butterfly (58.21) even though she was in the second-last heat.

Another Canadian High Performance Swimmer, Josh Zakala, placed second in his preliminary group this morning. He closed out the early session the 400m individual medley in a time of 4:14.34. Joining him will be Zachary Dumas, who earned the seventh best time in the prelims and buzzed more than six seconds off his entry time to post a 4:19.68.

Bailey Espersen trimmed 0.13 seconds off his U SPORTS qualifying time to finish second in the men's 100m breaststroke at 1:01.47. In the same heat, Daniel Greer touched in behind him to snag the last spot in the A Final.

Ethan Jensen cut more than a half second off his entry time in the 100m butterfly, where he touched in sixth with a time of 54.54.

Local freshman swimmer, Lauren Crisp, will appear in her hometown pool this evening. Crisp turned it up during the back half of her 400m individual medley and earned the seventh fastest time, 4:52.51.

A breaststroke specialist, second-year swimmer Jamie Hellard proved she is worthy of swimming with the best in the country. After the official results came in, she sat in eighth in the 100m breaststroke with a time of 1:10.47.

The Vikes have several chances to grab valuable points for the team categories with swimmers in B and C Finals.

Lauren Taylor and Allison Ballantyne touched in 21^st and 22^nd respectively in the 200m freestyle.

Crisp will be back in the pool for the 50m backstroke final. She missed a birth in the A Final by 0.14 seconds and finished 10^th.

Kara Wilson, Andrea Farmer and Kira Grebinsky will all be racing in the 100m breaststroke C Final.

First-year swimmer Alexandria Hedges made some waves by making the C Final in the highly competitive 100m butterfly by dropping nearly two seconds of her entry time and touched in at 1:02.53.

Closing out the women's finals, graduating swimmer Victoria Mock will be joined by first-year swimmer Kyla Ross in the B Final for the 400m individual medley.

In what should be a big championship later on for Eric Hedlin, he got started by snagging the final spot in the C Final for the 200m freestyle.

Both Padric McKervill and Ethan Phillips will line up in the B Finals this evening in the 400m individual medley.

The only U SPORTS short track record that was broken this morning came from Kelsey Wog of the University of Manitoba Bisons, who touched in at 1:05.05. The previous record was 1:05.16, which was set by Annamay Pierse of the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds.

The finals run this evening at 6 p.m. The broadcast can be found on CBC.ca/sports.