MAUI, HAWAII – A 1-3 finish by Sarah Darcel and Mary-Sophie Harvey in 400-metre individual medley, a men’s 4×200-m relay bronze and Rebecca Smith’s second silver of the meet gave Canada a big day at the Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships.

At the Kihel Aquatic Center, the Canadian contingent earned five medals (1G-1S-3B) on Thursday. The relay bronze from Colin Gilbert, Ian MacKinnon, Brian Palaschuk, and Josh Zakala, who came in at seven minutes 23.85 seconds to prevail over Japan (7:24.68), capped a five-medal night.

“Everyone came together and did best times,” said MacKinnon, of the Golden Horseshoe Aquatic Club. “We put in a lot of time on our relay takeovers. Other than that, it came down to lifetime best times. It showed everyone do better than they have in individual events. It’s pretty special to be on a team that is always ready to race… everyone coming from places all over Canada and coming together with a week together and a couple days in Maui sharpening things up. It’s cool we were able to do that.”

Zakala had a fourth-place 400-m IM result about a half-hour before the relay.

“He had a great 400 IM swim and then came right back,” said MacKinnon, whose relay was on the podium with Australia (7:20.41, gold) and the United States (7:22.73). “He’s got talent – along with everyone else on the team.”

The Victoria-based Darcel won the women’s 400-m IM gold in 4:39.83, more than a full second ahead of American Brooke Forde (4:40.98, silver). Harvey, of Saint-Jerome, Que., secured bronze in 4:42.49.

“We both talked about it after the morning session – ‘let’s try to be the first double medallists of the meet,’ ” said Harvey, who is part of the Intensive Training Program – Montreal. “We did it so it was pretty nice. I know I have been training really hard this year, like at the [Canadian Olympic & Para-swimming] Trials and stuff. I’ve seen Sarah do super-well in workouts, so I know she  can do it.

“It’s really nice to see everyone swimming so well,” added Harvey, who was fourth in 400-m IM at the 2014 Pan Pacs. “The Olympics [with six swimming medals] really showed Canada that we’re moving forward, and we can be good in junior as well. There’s two more days to go and I’m super-excited.”

Smith kicked off the night by putting down a 55.06-second 100-m freestyle, joining American Isabel Ivey (54.95, gold) and China’s Zixuan Liu (55.42, bronze) on the podium.

“I was happy with my placing because I moved up a spot [after being third in the heats],” Smith said. “I’ve been really training hard toward my last 25 in the 100. That really showed tonight. On the last lap I was close to the third spot [Liu] and just really closed well.”

Kelsey Wog of Winnipeg claimed the women’s 100-m breaststroke bronze in the tightest final of the night. Americans Zoe Bartel (1:07.87) and Allie Raab (1:07.95) finished 1-2, with Wog clocking 1:08.02

Canadian finalists on Thursday:

Women’s 100-m freestyle: Rebecca Smith, Cascade Swim Club, silver, 55.06 seconds; Kayla Sanchez, Markham Aquatic Club, seventh, 56.89.

Men’s 100-m freestyle: Stephen Calkins, University of Calgary Swim Club, sixth, 51.31; Ian MacKinnon, Golden Horseshoe Aquatic Club, seventh, 51.34.

Women’s 100-m breaststroke: Kelsey Wog, University of Manitoba, bronze, 1:08.02.

Men’s 100-m breaststroke: Warren Mayer, Pickering Swim Club, sixth, 1:02.02.

Women’s 400-m individual medley: Sarah Darcel, CSI Pacific NextGen Program, gold, 4:39.83; Mary-Sophie Harvey, ITP – Montreal, bronze, 4:42.49.

Men’s 400-m individual medley: Josh Zakala, CSI Pacific NextGen Program, fourth, 4:20.95.

Women’s 4×200-m freestyle relay: Canada (Smith, Sanchez, Wog, Harvey), fourth, 8:09.17.

Men’s 4×200-m freestyle relay: Canada (Gilbert, MacKinnon, Palaschuk, Zakala), bronze, 7:23.85.

Full results: http://www.swmeets.com/Realtime/Jr%20PanPacs/2016/