Colorado Springs, Co - The Simon Fraser University men's and women's swimmers began the United States Air Force Academy Dual Meet Invitational on Friday against swimmers from Air Force, Colorado School of Mines, Colorado Mesa University and on the women's side, the University of Nebraska-Omaha.
After the first day of competition, the Clan men defeated Colorado School of Mines 127-77, Colorado Mesa 127-103 and lost to Air Force 142.50-89.50.
On the women's side, the Clan won against the University of Nebraska-Omaha 132-104, Colorado Mesa 154-82, the Colorado School of Mines 174-54 and lost to Air Force 140-92.
The scores reflect the first 26 events - 13 on the men's side and 13 on the women's.
In the first event of the day, the Clan 200-yard medley relay team of
Grace Ni (Prince George, BC),
Brianna Bailey (Red Deer, AB), Alex Schofield (Coquitlam, BC) and
Nicole Cossey (Innisfail, AB) earned the Clan's first win of the day, winning the race in 1:47.71, less than a second ahead of the team from Air Force.
In the same event on the men's side, the Clan finished second, less than a second behind Air Force as Clan swimmers
Hans Heyer (Frankfurt, Germany),
Julian Monks (Whitby, ON),
Ciaran McDonnell (Pitt Meadows, BC) and
Dane Simmons (Maple Ridge, BC) swam in a time of 1:33.38.
In the women's 1000-yard freestyle, freshman
Claudia Mathieu (Toronto, ON) finished third behind two Air Force swimmers, finishing the event in a time of 11:09.82 before fellow freshman
Lucas Greenough (Barrie, ON) finished fourth for the Clan in the men's 200-yard freestyle in a time of 1:46.25.
The next two events were taken by Clan swimmers as Cossey won the women's 50-yard freestyle in a time of 23.76 ahead of two Air Force swimmers before the Clan finished first and second in the men's competition with Heyer taking first in a time of 21.45 and teammate
Justin Kiedrzyn (New Westminster, BC) finishing second in a time of 21.74.
Clan swimmers finished first and third in the women's 100-yard butterfly race, with Schofield taking it in a time of 58.13 and
Lauren Swistak (Port Moody, BC) taking third in a time of 58.63.
Cossey earned her second win of the day in event 15, winning the women's 100-yard freestyle race in a time of 51.47.
In the women's 100-yard backstroke, three Clan swimmers finished just behind the race winner from Air Force as Ni finished second in a time of 58.45,
Carly Guraliuk (Surrey, BC) finished third in a time of 1:00.43 and Mathieu finished fourth in a time of 1:01.80.
In the next event, the men's 100-yard backstroke, Heyer got his second win of the day, taking the race in a time of 50.89 while
Dimitar Ivanov (Coquitlam, BC) finished third in a time of 52.66 and
Brandon Bronson (Oshawa, ON) finished fourth in a time of 53.46.
Clan women took three of the top five spots in the 500-yard freestyle as
Meghan Quon (Richmond, BC) finished second in a time of 5:22.80,
Carmen Nam (Hong Kong, China) finished fourth in a time of 5:31.91 and
Katie McEvoy (Victoria, BC) finished fifth in a time of 5:34.07.
Clan swimmers finished second and fourth in the men's 500-yard freestyle as
Igor Gasovic-Varga (New Westminster, BC) finished second in a time of 4:55.74 and
Duncan Andrews (Barrie, ON) took fourth in a time of 4:57.82.
In the women's 100-yard breaststroke, Bailey and McEvoy took fourth and fifth, with Bailey finishing fourth in a time of 1:08.22 and McEvoy fifth in a time of 1:08.55. Both times were less than half a second behind the third place swimmer from the University of Nebraska-Omaha.
On the men's side, the Clan took first, third and fifth in the 100-yard breaststroke as Monks won in a time of 58.41,
Keenan Elliott (Barrie, ON) took third in a time of 1:00.57 and Greenough finished fifth in a time of 1:00.62.
The Clan closed out the day strong, finishing second and fourth in the women's 400-yard freestyle relay in times of 3:33.03 and 3:49.14 respectively while the men finished first and second in times of 3:11.94 and 3:15.53 respectively.
The competition continues on Saturday in Colorado Springs, CO.
