AUSTIN, Texas – Two-time Olympic medallist Taylor Ruck of the High Performance Centre – Ontario group started 2018 as strong as she finished 2017 with two third place performances Thursday at the opening event on the Pro Swim Series circuit.

Ruck’s HPC-Ontario teammate Rebecca Smith was also third in the women’s 100-m butterfly.

The 17-year-old Ruck, who raced to national record performances last month at meets in Europe, took third spot in the women’s 200-m backstroke and was also third in the 200-m freestyle.

In the 200-m backstroke, Xuwei Peng of China was victorious in two minutes and 08.17 seconds. Regan Smith of the U.S. was second in 2:08.64 and Ruck followed in 2:08.90.

Bingjie Li of China won the 200-m freestyle in 1:56.96 followed by Melanie Margalis of the U.S. in second in 1:58.23 and Ruck third in 1:59.26. Smith was seventh.

Smith was third in the 100-m butterfly clocking 58.72. Amanda Kendall of the U.S. was tops in 58.29 and Yufei Zhang of China was second in 58.39.

On the men’s side, Tristan Cote was third in the 400-m individual medley, fellow Calgarian Robert Hill was fourth in 200-m backstroke and Jeremy Bagshaw of Victoria fifth in the 200-m freestyle.

Hill was only 0.03 seconds from third place.

Rachel Nicol, also based in Calgary, was eighth in the women’s 200-m breaststroke.

Meanwhile, the Canadian contingent included four swimmers from the national team development program which recently trained at the HPC-Ontario. They are Noah Cumby (St. John’s Legends club and coached by David Ling), Oksana Chaput (Manta Swimming, Szilvie Carriere), Genevieve Sasseville (Chatham Pool Sharks, Kyle Pinsonneault) and Ainsley McMurray (Cote Saint-Luc Aquatics, Mike Calcutt).

Competition continues through to Sunday.

Full results: Meet Results: 2018 TYR Pro Swim Series, Austin