With the Canada West Championship meet still over a month away, the University of Lethbridge Pronghorn swim team continues to enjoy an impressive start to the season under first-year head coach Peter Schori.

After posting its first CIS Top 10 appearance in more than 10 years, the 'Horns have already nearly doubled their Canada West qualifying swimmers and will send their biggest team to the conference championships in more than seven seasons.

This past weekend at the JP Fiset Invitational meet in Edmonton, the 'Horns achieved one more Canada West qualifying time, pushing the team's total to 26. Last season, the 'Horns only sent 15 swimmers to the conference meet and with still more than a month to go, the 'Horns have qualified nearly that number in each gender. To date, the 'Horns have 13 men and 13 women who have achieved the Canada West qualifying standard.

A total of 25 of 29 Horns raced to lifetime bests last weekend and three more swimmers qualifyied for the CIS Championships.

Freshman Kara Declark secured her first CIS time in the 50 fly and is the first of the Pronghorn women to qualify for the CIS championship meet this year. Mat Loyola (200 breast) and Tiha Konyves (50/100 free) added their names to the men's CIS roster. Freshman Brooke Whitaker made her first Canada West standard in the 100 free. The Horns now have 26 swimmers qualified for the Canada West conference championship and eight swimmers qualified for the CIS national championship.

The Horns also broke five more school records to bring the total to nine for the season. The men set new Pronghorn records in the 200 free relay for the second time this year and continued to show national level class in the medley relay with their third new record of the season in the 200. Ryan Thornley broke his own 'Horns records in the 50 Back and 50 fly, becoming the first in school history to break 26 seconds in the 50 back with a time of 25.78 seconds. Jeffrey Nicol broke through in the 200 breast, bettering his own record by more than a second in 2:14.93.

The Canada West Championships will be hosted by the University of Victoria, Jan. 25 -27, 2013.