BURNABY, B.C. – Simon Fraser had four school-record performances today on the first day of action at the NCAA Division II Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving Championships in Greensboro, North Carolina.

"I'm really pleased with the start for the nationals; we were prepared to perform at this meet, it's always great when the team begins well on Day 1," said SFU head coach Demone Tissira. "Now we have to carry that momentum to the next three days. More to come."

SFU has 27 points in the women's competition and sits 14th in the team standings. On the men's side, SFU is 20th with 17 points, all of which came from Collyn Gagne.

He won silver in the men's 200-yards individual medley event. The junior touched the wall in one minute 45.03 seconds, establishing a new SFU short-course yards record. Gagne was the last swimmer to finish the opening leg but he moved from seventh to second in the third portion of the race. He finished behind Alex Kunert (Queens) who clocked 1:43.95 to win the national title.
 

Kennedy Loewen already held the school's short-course yards record in the women's 200 IM going into the NCAAs, but she bettered her own standard twice today.

The junior completed her swim in the preliminaries in 2:01.15. Then in the NCAA event final, Loewen posted a time of 2:00.93, finishing just off the podium in fourth. The third-place finisher, Katie McCoy, came in at 2:00.82. Loewen was seventh after the first 50 yards, and moved up to fifth midway through the race.

Loewen also anchored SFU to an 11th-place result in the 200 medley relay. Freshman Kaysha Bikadi led off in the backstroke before fellow freshman Isabelle Roth did the breaststroke portion. Senior Kaleigh Sharkey swam the butterfly before touching the wall to bring Loewen into the pool for the freestyle leg.

Together, the four SFU stars recorded a time of 1:42.34 to establish a new short-course yards school record, and earn 12 points in the team standings.

Sharkey also competed in the 50 freestyle Wednesday. She completed her race in 23.55 seconds, placing 27th in the heats, and did not advance.
 
Day 2 at the NCAA Division II national meet will be another busy one for SFU.

Loewen and Gagne will swim their respective 400 IM events. Sharkey will compete in the 100 fly. Freshman Tori Meklensek and sophomore Leo Fath are entered in the women's and men's 200 free, respectively.

Bikadi, Roth, Sharkey, and Loewen will team up again in the 400 medley relay.

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