By Jim Morris

TORONTO –  The Penny dropped again Saturday night.

Penny Oleksiak produced a record-breaking performance at the Olympic and Para-swimming Trials, presented by RBC. She also helped her teammates from the High Performance Centre – Ontario book a trip to this summer’s Rio Olympics.

The 15-year-old from Toronto earned her second victory of the meet, winning the women’s 100-metre freestyle in 53.31 seconds. That sliced .52 off the Canadian record held by Chantal Van Landeghem.  She also broke the world junior record of 53.84 seconds held by China’s Shen Duo.

“I am so excited for Rio right now,” said Oleksiak, who already had reached the nomination standard in the 100-m butterfly, 200-m freestyle and 4×200-m relay. “Being able to medal in my races so far, that has made me more confident in myself.”

Van Landeghem of Winnipeg was second in 53.91, under the individual Olympic nomination standard of 54.43. Montreal’s Sandrine Mainville was third in 54.14 and Toronto’s Michelle Williams fourth in 54.45. Their times are good enough to go to Rio as a relay team.

The four women already hold the national 4×50 free relay, and short-course 4×100 free relay records.

“To go with those three girls I train with every day helped me so much,” said Oleksiak. “I wasn’t expecting myself to go as fast as that, but those three girls really helped me through it.”

Van Landeghem wept in joy after climbing out of the pool and finding out her father Wayne surprised her by attending the race.

“I think we can do something really big this summer,” she said. “The relay is going to be phenomenal.

“We are only going to get faster from here on out.”

After five days, 24 swimmers (17 women, seven men) have made the nomination standard for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

The Para-swimmers who have met the nomination standard will be acknowledged on Sunday.

“To go with those three girls I train with every day helped me so much. I wasn’t expecting myself to go as fast as that, but those three girls really helped me through it.” – Penny Oleksiak

Brittany MacLean had a convincing victory in the 800-m freestyle, winning in eight minutes, 21.40 seconds. It was the third-fastest time posted in the world this year and was more than 12 seconds under the nomination standard.

“I wanted to post a really fast time,” said MacLean, who also won the 200 and 400-m freestyle. “I’m happy with that right now.

“I know there are a few things I will go back to my coach and I need to work on. For now, it’s a good starting point.”

Kierra Smith of Kelowna, B.C., won the 200-m breaststroke in 2:23.91. Martha McCabe of Toronto, who also trains at the High Performance Centre – Vancouver, was second in 2:25.13. Both swam under the nomination standard of 2:26.94.

Mack Darragh of Oakville, Ont., won the men’s 100-m butterfly in 53.37 seconds but missed the nomination standard of 52.36. Jeremie Dezwirek won the 200-m backstroke in 1:58.31 but was .09 above the nomination standard.

Canadian records were broken in the Para-swimming events.

Nicolas-Guy Turbide of Quebec City won the multi-class men’s 100-m backstroke in 1:00.31. That knocked .58 off the S13 record he set last year.

Aurelie Rivard, the S10 swimmer from St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., won the multi-class women’s 100-m backstroke in 1:11.72. S4 swimmer Tammy Cunnington of Red Deer, Alta., won the multi-class women’s 50-m backstroke in 1:12.99. It was the fourth gold of the meet for both swimmers.

Two records were broken in the men’s multi-class 50-m backstroke.

Riley McLean of Vernon, B.C, won in 57.88, breaking his S4 record of 58.46. Danial Murphy of Bedford, N.S., was second in 52.86. That broke the S5 record of 53.96 set by Andrew Cooke in 2014.

The trials, which end Sunday, have attracted 762 swimmers from 187 clubs cross Canada, the United States and other parts of the world. The competition is being held at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre, the same pool that hosted last year’s Pan American and Parapan Am Games.

All finals sessions will be webcast live on CBCSports.ca beginning at 6:45 p.m. ET. For full results and more information visit www.swimming.ca/trials.