University life is always an adjustment for everybody.

There's moving away from home sometimes hundreds or thousands of kilometres learning to cook, adjusting to larger classes, larger crowds and making new friends.

For most people, it ends up being the best four years of their lives, but not before they go through a few growing pains.

For Yukon swimmer MacKenzie Downing, the growing pains involve not only her personal and academic life, but also her time in the pool.

Now in her second semester at the University of Victoria, Downing is posting impressive results at competitive swim meets. But (UVic) Vikes head coach Peter Vizsolyi said she's still adjusting to her surroundings.

'She's doing a good job, but she's got a lot of things to learn,' he stated. 'It's a big change for her to come down here after swimming with a small club.

'The university is probably pretty crowded compared to what she's used to, plus she has to adjust to so many other things around campus and I think she's still working on those things.'

Downing is also working on expanding her event list, as she arrived in Victoria with a concentration in the 100-m and 200-m fly. While Vizsolyi said she is definitely still a 'flyer,' he has her competing hard in freestyle as well.

'She focused on the 100-m fly before because that was her best chance at making the national team,' he said. 'I think that's understanding coming from a small program, but long term, the more chances you have with events, the better opportunity to do it (make the national team).

'She is also very, very good in the 200-m and 400-m free. She improved four seconds last week in the 200 free, which is quite a bit.'

Last week was the Canada West swimming championships in Lethbridge, Alberta, where Downing not only improved her time in the 200-m free, but grabbed five medals in total four of them gold. She also helped the UVic relay team pick up a bronze medal in the 4x200-m free relay.

'It went really well,' said the athlete. 'The first day didn't go very well at all, but the rest of the meet was good.'

Downing swam two races each morning, followed by another two and a relay at night. She said on the first day, she was still tired from the previous competition and not really into it.

To get her motivated, the coach told her to shoot for the best rookie title at the meet. And after claiming gold in the 100-m fly, 200-m fly, 200-m free and 400-m free, no one was too surprised when she was indeed named Canada West Rookie of the Year.

'There was no competition,' said Vizsolyi about the rookie title.

Downing said winning the title was very exciting for her, adding there wasn't that much competition in the fly events but she was challenged in the free events.

'Some of them were really tough races and some of the competitors were very close to me,' she said. 'I don't think I would have even gone that fast in the 200-m free, but there was a girl catching me at the end and I didn't want her to beat me.'

Downing also broke the Vikes record in the 200 freestyle with her time of 2:01.72, eclipsing the mark set by Danielle Bell (2:02.12) and just missed records in the 100-m free (relay lead off) and the 100-m fly. She was two seconds off the record in the 200-m fly, although she finished first in that event by more than four seconds (2:14.56).

And she added Canada West All Star awards to her impressive haul at her first Canada West championships. She was named All Star in the sprint freestyle, distance freestyle and butterfly categories.

Downing said she's glad Vizsolyi has her training in the freestyle events as well as the fly, since the longer distances, like the 400-m, are good for her aerobically.

'Swimming the 400-m fly is really, really important to her health in the longer fly events,' agreed the coach. 'I still think she's a flyer, but I just think that she can probably swim internationally on relay teams, maybe in the 200 and 400 free and in the 100 and 200 fly individually. She's got to look at those opportunities.

'If you're a one-event person and all of a sudden, someone younger comes up, your opportunity to swim internationally pretty much disappears.'

Downing said she's enjoyed learning from Vizsolyi, who has been head coach at UVic since 1983. She said he has tons of international experience and has coached a lot of Olympians, so 'he knows what he's talking about.'

As for her new team, Downing said they have a lot of fun together. The women's squad is currently 10th in the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) top-ten rankings. The men are not ranked.

The Vikes practice twice a day four times a week and once a day twice a week, so the only day they have off is Sunday. Downing said while it can be hard to balance all of the practice and training time with school work, she's managed to do it so far.

The next big competition for the swim club is the CIS championships at the end of February, which will be held in Edmonton at the University of Alberta.

Downing said she doesn't really know what to expect as far as the level of competition, but she does have a couple of goals in mind.

'I'm hoping to get my fly down to where it should be,' she stated. 'I want to get a best time in that. And I'm hoping to make some finals in freestyle.'

Her biggest goal this year involved the 2006 Commonwealth Games, as trials are in November. That means Downing won't really be taking any time off this summer, training right through the year instead, with hopes of making the Games team.

Vizsolyi said he believes Downing has years of success ahead of her, adding he has no doubt she will be an asset to the Vikes' program.

'I just hope she's able to accomplish her goals. That's what our philosophy is in the school and that's what the philosophy in our swimming program is.

'We're basically trying to give people the best opportunity they can have to compete at the highest level they can commit to.'