David Bandla - Canada West

EDMONTON – For a second consecutive season the UBC Thunderbirds have claimed the conference team title in both men's and women's competition at the 2012 Canada West swimming championships, hosted Friday through Sunday by the University of Alberta the Kinsmen Aquatic Centre in Edmonton.

UBC has now won three straight times on the women's side.

UBC was followed by Alberta (silver) and Calgary (bronze) on the men's side, while Calgary earned a team silver medal on the women's side and Alberta the bronze.

"It was a great team win, and I thought we really showed a lot of character coming into another team's pool and defending our championship," said first year UBC head coach Steve Price. "We got some really great swims from our rookies on the women's side, as well as from our veteran swimmers like Tommy Gossland and Martha McCabe."

Individually, Athletes of the Meet were Jason Block of Calgary and UBC's Savannah King.

Block, a quadruple gold medalist over the weekend, established new meet records in the men's 50m and 100m breaststroke, took another gold in the 200m breaststroke, shared gold as a member of the Dinos' 400m Medley Relay team and grabbed a silver medal in 200m Individual Medley to make it a five-medal event. A triple-gold medalist, King was a part of the Thunderbirds' record-setting 800m freestyle relay team on Friday. She also won the very first event of the meet, the 800m freestyle, and on Sunday afternoon won the 400m freestyle, won a silver in the 200m freestyle and bronze in the 200m backstroke for a total of five medals.

Rookie of the Year honours went to members of the Calgary Dinos, as Andrew Makosiej won the men's award and Lindsay Delmar was the top women's first-year swimmer.

Makosiej earned two medals, including a bronze in the 400m and 1500m freestyle. He also finished sixth in the 200m backstroke. Delmar, who won six medals, was a member of the Dinos squad that won gold and set a new Canada West record in Saturday's 400m freestyle relay. The Calgary native also won silver in the 100m butterfly, 200m butterfly, with the Dinos' 800m freestyle relay team and 400m Medley Relay squad, along with a bronze medal in the 200m freestyle final.

Honoured as Canada West nominees for the CIS student-athlete awards are Matthew Mastromatteo from the Lethbridge Pronghorns and UBC's Hayley Pipher.

Mastromatteo, a fifth-year Urban and Regional Studies student, has spent the past four seasons as the Can Swim Coach, coaching four times a week. He also volunteers for Operation Red Nose and participated in 'Movember' in the fall of 2011 raising $600.00 for prostate cancer awareness. He qualified for the CIS championship in every season at Lethbridge. At this week' event Mastromatteo placed 11th in the men's 200m backstroke, 12th in the 50m backstroke and 13th in the 100m backstroke.

Pipher, a second-year Bachelor of Science major, is a two-year member of African Awareness Initiative service club. She was also part of Vancouver's Me to We Mobilizers, which sees Vancouver youth fundraise to put on community events at indigenous communities overseas. Over the weekend, Pipher was a bronze medalist in the 400m IM, 6th in the 200m backstroke and 200m IM, 11th in the 50m backstroke.

Named Coach of the Year for the men's event in his sixth season at the helm was Alberta's Bill Humby, who guided the Golden Bears to silver medal, their highest finish at the conference meet since 1995. First-year UBC head coach Steve Price claimed honours for guiding the UBC women's team to gold.

"It feels pretty satisfying coming back to Edmonton for the first time since leaving the club and performing well here and getting the win," noted Price.

At the 2012 event, nine meet records fell – two on Friday night, four on Saturday and three more on Sunday afternoon.

Following is a list of 2012 Canada West swimming Awards & All-Stars:

Awards

Athletes of the Meet

Male: Jason Block, Calgary

Female: Savannah King, UBC

Rookie of the Year

Male: Andrew Makosiej, Calgary

Female: Lindsey Delmar, Calgary

Student Athlete/Community Service Nominee

Male: Matthew Mastromatteo, Lethbridge

Female: Hayley Pipher, UBC

Coach of the Year

Male: Bill Humby, Alberta

Female: Steve Price, UBC

First Team All-Stars

(all gold medal winners)

MEN

Kelly Aspinall, UBC

Joshua Au, Alberta

Rory Bikuspi, UBC

Jason Block, Calgary

Craig Brazier, UBC

Joe Byram, Alberta

Gavin D'Amico, Alberta

Duncan Furrer, UBC

Tommy Gossland, UBC

Michael Lowenstein, Calgary

Connor Maxey, Calgary

Gleb Suvorov, Calgary

Brian Yakiwchuk, Alberta

WOMEN

Lindsay Delmar, Calgary

Brittney Harley, UBC

Jessica Johnson, Calgary

Savannah King, UBC

Heather MacLean, UBC

Martha McCabe, UBC

Erin Miller, Alberta

Seanna Mitchell, Calgary

Fionnuala Pierse

Grainne Pierse, UBC

Amanda reason, Calgary

Rachelle Salli, UBC

Terry Van Beilen, UBC

Erin Wamsteeker, Calgary

All qualifiers now head to the CIS championship meet, February 23-25 at University of Montreal.