BURNABY  – Two school records were broken and Kaleigh Sharkey improved on her NCAA overall ranking in the 50 meters freestyle Friday on the first day of the SFU Western Invitational at Margaret and Paul Savage Pool.
 
This is the last weekend of competition for swimmers around the NCAA to make "A" or "B" qualifying standards required for invitations to nationals. Conference championships are taking place at many pools in the United States with swimmers hoping to improve race times.
 
Eclipsing the "A" standard earns an automatic invitation to nationals. Making the "B" cut and ranking high enough will earn an invitation to the NCAA Championships scheduled for March 9 to 12 at the Greensboro Aquatic Center in Greensboro, North Carolina. The SFU women are ranked No. 13 in NCAA and the men are No. 20.
 
Racing this weekend is short course meters and times must be converted to short course yards for qualifying and NCAA ranking.
 
SFU's Kennedy Loewen set a school record in the 200 individual medley, shaving more than a second off Jessie Gibson's 2017 record in the morning preliminaries. Loewen finished in 2:17.42. The old record was 2:18.76. Loewen swam faster in a race vs Seattle U in December and currently ranks 14^th overall in the event.
 
Collyn Gagner already holds the No. 1 time in the men's 200 IM, one of two swimmers to make the "A" and automatic invitation to nationals. Gagner did not improve on his time or ranking Friday.
 
The women's 200 freestyle relay team also set a school record when they touched in 1:45.11, breaking the 2014 record of 1:45.83. The time the foursome of Kaleigh Sharkey, Jordan Doner, Loewen and Tori Meklensek clocked is hundreds of a second within the time that received an invitation to last year's championships, which is usually a good indicator they'll be close to the time needed for an invite to this year's championships.
 
The men's 200 free relay team did not make the qualifying standard.
 
Sharkey returned to the pool to clock 26.17 in the 50 metres free, improving on her NCAA ranking from 47 to 36. Her converted time was a 10^th of a second faster than her previous best, and close to the 26.16 that earned invitations to the 2021 championships.
 
Weekend racing continues Saturday and Sunday with preliminary racing at 9:30 AM and the finals at 5:00 PM daily. Action is streamed on https://www.facebook.com/SFUswim . Results are available on MeetMobile and at the end of each day at athletics.sfu.ca
 
 
--@SFU_Athletics--