Swimmers continue to swim well at Kemp-Fry Invitational

(HALIFAX, N.S.) – Swimmers posted 36 U SPORTS championship qualifying times on the second day of Dalhousie's 2018 Kemp-Fry Invitational Swim Meet. 

The evening session featured 16 finals, with McGill winning eight of 16, while the Tigers claimed victory in five. 

Alec Karlsen had the first win for the Tigers, finishing first in the 400m IM in a U SPORTS qualifying time of 4:23.05. Lise Cinq-Mars earned first place finish in the 100m butterfly and punched her ticket to the national championships in the process, as did Claire Yurkovich in the 200m backstroke. Isabel Sarty led a Dalhousie sweep of the 200m freestyle in a U SPORTS qualifying time of 2:00.68. 

Sarty, Cinq-Mars, Yurkovich and Reagan Crowell set a new AUS and Dalhousie record in the 400m freestyle relay with a U SPORTS qualifying time of 3:49.18. They topped the record previously set in 2014 by the Dalhousie team of Molly Wedge, Ceilidh MacPherson, Ainsley Fraser and Meagan Bernier. 

Olivia Feschuk (50m butterfly), Yurkovich (50m backstroke) and Christina Payne (50m backstroke) all posted U SPORTS qualifying times in their respective events. Crowell (200m freestyle) earned a berth at the U SPORTS championships earlier in the day in the preliminaries. 

McGill's Bailey Mothe won the women's 400m IM, missing the U SPORTS qualifying time by just over a tenth of a second. Kade Wist touched first in the 100m butterfly, booking his trip to the national championships. Clement Secchi was first in the 200m backstroke and the 50m backstroke, both with U SPORTS qualifying times. Sarah Knott won the 100m breaststroke in a U SPORTS qualifying time of 1:10.65. Eric Ji also won the 100m breaststroke, missing the U SPORTS marker by four tenths of a second. Samuel Wang won the 200m freestyle. 

The men's 400m freestyle relay team of Wist, Wang, Secchi and Collin was their first to touch the wall with a U SPORTS qualifying time of 3:22.97. 

William Helm (400m IM), Claire Shewchuk (200m backstroke), Rebecca Gillis (200m backstroke) all punched their ticket to nationals during the finals. Colm Somers (400m IM), Knott (100m butterfly), Marius Collin (50m freestyle) and Katie Na (200m backstroke) all met the U SPORTS qualifying time standard earlier in the day during the preliminaries. 

Acadia swimmer Brett Liem posted another U SPORTS qualifying time in the 50m freestyle to win the event. Kelsea Vessey posted a U SPORTS qualifying time in the 100m butterfly on her way to a second-place finish, as did Benjamin Henger in the 100m butterfly. Jessica Pelletier was second in the 50m backstroke with a national championship qualifying time. 

UNB's Leah Smal continued to impress, winning both the women's 50m freestyle and backstroke events, in U SPORTS qualifying times. She also earned a spot at the national championships in the 200m backstroke with a third-place finish. 

Day three of the Kemp-Fry Invitational starts tomorrow morning at 10:00am with the preliminaries followed by finals at 4:30pm. The finals will be broadcast on AUStv.ca. 

Team Standings 

Women:

1. Dalhousie 505
2. McGill 469
3. Acadia 237
4. UNB 158
5. Mount Allison 75 

Men:

1. McGill 528
2. Dalhousie 387
3. Acadia 307
4. Mount Allison 64