Olympian Erica Morningstar was a one-woman record-breaking crew at the 2009 Canada West Swimming Championships over the weekend, bringing home six gold medals and six Canada West records as the Dinos successfully defended their overall team title.
For her efforts, she was also named Canada West and CIS Athlete of the Week.
The 19-year-old native of Regina who lives and trains in Calgary broke a five-year-old record in the 50-metre freestyle by nearly half a second in her first individual event, setting the stage for an impressive debut to CIS swimming competition. She added another record in the 100-metre freestyle, which she shattered by better than a second and a half, and lowered the nine-year-old conference mark in the 200-metre IM by better than three seconds.
As part of three champion relay teams, Morningstar added her name to the record book three more times. The Dinos shaved nine seconds off the 800-metre freestyle relay record, then took three and a half off the 400-metre free relay. She capped off the weekend swimming the breaststroke leg in the 400-metre medley relay, which the Dinos took with yet another conference record.
Morningstar nearly added a seventh record to her name in the 200-metre freestyle, but she was just out-touched by teammate Breanna Hendriks. Three Dinos stood on the podium for that event, and all three were under the old record time.
Morningstar was named the conference rookie of the year following the event, and she and the Dinos will now prepare for the CIS Championships in Vancouver Feb. 19-21.
