The swimming teams finished the 2008-09 season at the 2009 CIS Swimming Championships in Vancouver. Fifth year Jenna Houssin finished her Bison career in style with an eighth place finish in the 50m breaststroke with a time of 32.72. That time established a new Manitoba Bison team record by .72 seconds, and broke a 14 year old mark (Debbie Matejicka swam 33.44 in 1995).

Also, on day three and final day of the 2009 CIS Championship, Braeden Taylor, team MVP, smashed his third Bisons team record of the competition when he won the 'B' Final in the 50m breaststroke and finished ninth overall with a winning time of 29.01 (old team record: Dustin Boyachek swam 29.10 in 1990). Landice Yestrau, team MVP, also finished with a 13th place in the 200m backstroke in a time of 2:18.26.
   
In team standings, the Bison women's team finished tenth with 86 points (an improvement from last season's tied for 20th placing at CIS Nationals). This was the sixth time in seven years that the Bison women's team has placed in the CIS Top 10 at year-end. The Bison men's swim team finished 15th with 31 points.

During the 2009 CIS Championship, Yestrau also placed fifth in the 50m backstroke and sixth in the 100m backstroke. In addition, Taylor finished sixth in the 200m breaststroke and ninth in the 100m breaststroke with Emma Gaudet 14th in 50m backstroke and Kerri-Ann Bochen in 14th in 200m breaststroke.

There were seven Bison swimmers (women: Yestrau, Gaudet, Bochen, Rita Laszlo, Julie Therrien and Houssin; men: Taylor) at the 2009 CIS Swimming National Championship.

Swimmer Braeden Taylor finished the 2009 CIS Championship by breaking two provincial records and smashing three Manitoba Bisons swim record during the three day event. In the 100m breaststroke, Taylor set another Manitoban short course record (old provincial record: 1:02.89 by Dmytro Kraevskiy in 1997) plus Bisons team record with a winning time of 1:02.39. Earlier in day two preliminaries, he smashed a provincial short course record in the men's 200m breaststroke by swimming a new Manitoba time of 2:13.91. Taylor bettered the record by over a half of second set by himself (Taylor swam 2:14.56 on Dec. 6/08). It was also a Manitoba Bisons team record.

At the end of the 2009 Canada West Swimming Championship in Victoria, the Manitoba Bison men's swim team finished in fifth spot with 149 points in the seven team event. The women\'s team moved to fifth spot with 236 (16 points behind fourth place Victoria) and improved 99 points from last year's six place result in the seven team event.

The Bison highlights of the third and final day of 2009 Canada West Championship was the bronze medal performance by Taylor in 200m breaststroke in a time of 2:17.05. Plus, Yestrau just missed a podium finish with a fourth place in the 100m backstroke in a time of 1:02.87. Overall during the three day conference Championship, Taylor also finished fourth in the 100m breaststroke and fifth in 50m breaststroke. Yestrau swam to a fourth in the 200m backstroke while Emma Gaudet was fifth in the 50m backstroke. In 'B' Finals, Taylor was first and ninth overall in 200m IM; Yestrau was first and ninth overall in 100m freestyle; Kerri-Ann Bochen was first and ninth overall in 200m butterfly, 400 IM and 100m breaststroke plus Julie Therrien earned the CIS standard when she was first in the 'B' Final and ninth overall in 50m freestyle with a time of 27.17.

For the start of the 2009-10 season, there is a smaller women's team but a larger men's squad, which is led by Bison rookie Riley Pickerl. Pickerl smashed a couple of records at the 2009 Canada Cup in Toronto from Nov. 27-29/09. He set a new provincial swim record in the 800m freestyle event by swimming 8:10.81 and obliterated the 19 year old short course Manitoba record by over four seconds (past record: Jamie Stevens - 8:14.97). His 800m time is now the CIS fastest swim for that event so far this season.  In addition, he established a new Bison swim record in the 400m freestyle event. The Winnipeg native swam 3:57.95 and smashed the six year old record by over 1.5 seconds (past record: Elliot Macdonald - 3:59.5). His 400m time is now the CIS sixth fastest swim for that event so far this season.

The Bison men's swim team is ranked No. 13 in the latest CIS Top 10 poll prior to the holidays. At the annual 2009 Prairie Winter Invitational, Pickerl was rewarded with Swim of the Meet and Male High point award (attaining the most overall points in his age category), which ran from Dec. 3-6 at the Pan Am Pool. Pickerl earned the overall Swim of the Meet for his first place finish in a strong 8:18.35 in the 800m freestyle event to start the meet on December 3/09. He added another three gold medal performances (100, 400m freestyle and 200m backstroke) and two silver medal swims (100, 200m freestyle) during the four day meet. Kerri-Ann Bochen earned the CIS standard in the 200m breaststroke event (first Bison women swimmer to qualify for 2010 CIS Nationals) with a third place finish in a fast time of 2:40.30 on December 5/09. Bochen finished the meet with another podium finish with a silver in the 200m butterfly event in a time of 2:26.63.