GREENSBORO, NC. – Collyn Gagne won an NCAA Championship in record-setting fashion on Thursday when he captured the 400-yard individual medley by nearly six seconds over the second place finisher at the 2022 NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships at the Greensboro Aquatic Center.
 
Gagne was the top-seed after the morning preliminaries in a close race with Cedric Buessing of the University of Indianapolis but in the afternoon final he crushed the field by nearly six seconds to set an NCAA DII record of 3:42.49. The old record was 3:43.84. Gagne's time was also more than five seconds faster than his own school record.
 
In 2019, Gagne was fourth in the 400 IM in 3:51.08.
 

In the women's 400-yard IM, Kennedy Loewen proved to be the second fastest female in Division II when she clocked 4:17.61, taking eight seconds off her own school record. She finished three seconds behind Marize Van Jaarsveld (Uindy) who took top spot with a time of 4:14.06.
 
"We are very proud of our results, having the fastest male and second fastest female in the 400 medley means a lot for our program," said head coach Demone Tissira. "Winning when it matters is important, and today we proved that our program can produce a champion. It means we are doing things the right way."
 
Loewen picked up 17 points for her second place finish to lift the SFU women to seventh place overall with with 90 points after two days of competition. Gagne grabbed 20 points for the men's team, now in 14th place with 43 points after Day 2.
 


Men's team rankings through Day 2:
1.         Queens (NC): 330 points
2.         Drury: 231 points
3.         Indy: 217 points
4.         McKendree: 161 points
5.         Findlay: 129 points
 
Women's team rankings through Day 2:
1.         Queens (NC): 276 points
2.         Indy: 246 points
3.         Nova S'Eastern: 221 points
4.         Drury: 163 points
5.         West Chester: 99 points

Gagne's record swim and national title is the fourth NCAA title for the SFU swim programs and highlighted an incredible day of racing. SFU swimmers had six top 11 finishes.
 
In 2013, Mariya Chekanovych won two NCAA titles for SFU in the 100 and 200-yard breaststrokes, setting an NCAA record in the 100 breaststroke. In 2016, Mackenzie Hamill won the 1,650-yard freestyle for the men's program's first NCAA title.
 
SFU freshman Tori Meklensek turned heads with her performance in the 200 freestyle when she was one of eight swimmers to swim under 1:50 in the preliminaries, and one of two freshman who qualified for the final.
 
While Monica Gumina (Queens) won by almost two seconds in 1:46.76, the next four swimmers were also separated by less than two seconds. Meklensek claimed fourth in 1:49.32, making her the second fastest swimmer all-time in the event at SFU.
 
In other races, Kaleigh Sharkey placed 10th in 100-yard butterfly in 54.37 seconds and Leo Fath was 11th in 200-yard freestyle in a time of 1:36.65, making him the fastest swimmer all-time at SFU in the event.  
The fourseome of Kaysha Bikadi, Isabelle Roth, Kaleigh Sharkey & Kennedy Loewen took seventh in 400-yard medley relay with a new school record 3:42.80.
 
The championships continues tomorrow at 7 AM with the finals at 3PM. It can be watched live on NCAA.com
 
--@SFU_Athletics--