Victoria - Swimmers from as far away as Manitoba donned their fastskins and got down to business for an impressive day one at Victoria's Commonwealth Pool.

The top swim of the day went to UVic's Karley Stutzel, who crushed the previous 800M Freestyle record by almost four seconds and took home gold for the Vikes. Stutzel, a member of the 2003 Canadian Open Water national team, pulled away early and used her endurance to hold the lead. The UVic swimmer broke the previous Canada West record of 8:45.47 with a time of 8:41.24.

UBC Thunderbirds dominated the Men's 50M Breaststroke and clinched all top three spots. UBC's Matthew Huang timed sub-thirty in the breaststroke and took home first place for UBC with a time of 28.99. T-Bird teammates Chad Thiessen and Ian Chan followed up with second and third placed times of 30.13 and 30.59 respectively.

The long rivalry of Calgary versus UBC was re-established on day one as the teams split one gold each in the Men's and Women's 4 X 200M relay relays. On the Men's side, U of C edged out UBC with a time of 7:29.36. In the Women's, the crowd watched in trepidation as the two teams battled within a body length for the entirety of the race. In the end, the UBC women out-touched Calgary by 37 hundredths of a second for a winning time of 8:10.62.

Day two of the Canada West Swimming Championships will resume Saturday at 10:00am.

2004 Canada West Swimming Championships University of Victoria, Saanich Commonwealth Team Rankings - Through Event 4

Female Team Scores Place School Points 1 Ubc Thunderbirds UBCT 85 2 U of Victoria UVIC 82 3 Univ OF Calgary Varsity Team UOFC 57 4 University of Alberta UOFA 49 5 University of Lethbridge UOFL 34 6 University of Manitoba Bisons UMAN 30 7 University OF Regina UOFR 5 Total 342.00

Male Team Scores Place School Points 1 Univ OF Calgary Varsity Team UOFC 95 2 Ubc Thunderbirds UBCT 92 3 U of Victoria UVIC 47 4 University of Alberta UOFA 45 5 University OF Regina UOFR 37 6 University of Lethbridge UOFL 26 Total 342.00

For a full breakdown of day one and live results, click here: http://www.pacificcoastswimming.com/cwchamps.php