In front of a raucous crowd of fellow students, the 22-year-old – fresh off winning two gold medals at the World Championships in Doha - romped to victory in the 1500m in a time of 14:42.05, taking 20 seconds off his previous BUCS best, set at the same event last year.
It was one of five BUCS records set in a thrilling night of action at Ponds Forge.
Fellow Loughborough student Tatiana Belonogoff was in superb form to hold off Kara Hanlon of University of Edinburgh and take the 50m women’s breaststroke title, while Oliver Morgan picked-up the open 100m backstroke title. Also representing Loughborough, Fleur Lewis broke her own 1500m record with a dominant performance to match that of Wiffen.
Lewis Fraser of Swansea University was also victorious in the open 100m butterfly.
Meanwhile, over at the English Institute of Sport, it was the 60m speedsters who took centre stage on the opening evening of Athletics.
In the women’s 60m hurdles final, Abigail Powlett broke the BUCS Championship record with a time of 8.17s to beat Marli Jessop, while Daniel Goriola of University of Nottingham took the men’s title.
Owen Heard of Loughborough attempted to add his name to the Championship record books three times in the pole vault event, but had to settle for taking home the gold.
In the 60m Ambulant Finals, there were victories for Thomas Young and Didi Okoh for Loughborough and Birmingham respectively.
And to round off the sprint finals, Stephen Awuah Baffour of De Montfort University and Alyson Bell of University of Edinburgh took home the 60m titles.
The first medals of the fencing competition were also handed out at Canon Medical Arena, the newest venue to become part of BUCS Nationals.
Anneke Zegers became Women's Sabre champion, while James Jeal of Nottingham took the Men's Epee title.
Also taking place at EIS were the first matches in the three-day, knock-out Badminton competition, which will continue to move on apace on Saturday, before the medal events on Sunday.
Saturday is set to be another thrilling day of sport in Yorkshire, with the Climbing Championships taking place across the day at The Climbing Works.
Swimming and Athletics will also see another group of BUCS champions crowned, while Karate also gets underway – held at Ponds Forge.
