Swimmers off to great start at AUS Invitational

WOLFVILLE, N.S. – The last AUS meet of the regular season kicked off today at Acadia with its first and only session of the day resulting in an Acadia lead in the combined score and men's results. The Dalhousie Tigers finished first in the women's results and second overall in the combined result. 

The Tigers led the pack with 10 wins in 20 events, while Acadia was not far behind with nine wins. 

Acadia's Brett Liem and Dalhousie's Isabel Sarty led their respective gender with two wins each in 18 single events. Sarty grabbed gold in the 50m and 200m freestyle, while Liem won the 50m butterfly and 50m freestyle. 

UNB's Leah Smal was the lone non-Acadia or Dalhousie swimmer to capture a win in the meet's opening event, the 200m medley. 

In the women's and men's 200m medley relays, the Axemen finished well ahead of the second place Tigers. Dean Sangster, Gordon Shortt, Shane Kenny and Brett Liem swam for the winning Acadia team. 

Martine Nyhof, Victoria MacDonald, Lise Cinq-Mars and Isabel Sarty captured gold in the relay for the Tigers. 

"This weekend is the final preparation as we are finishing our final push to get ready for AUS champs in 3 weeks. The goal this weekend was to come in tired and to try and race tough against our competition. Best times and rankings were not a priority, swimming aggressive and confident was the goal. It was our last chance to race," noted Acadia head coach Gary MacDonald. 

In the combined results, the Axemen lead second place Dalhousie with 698 points to Dalhousie's 598. In the women's team rankings, the Tigers have a comfortable 374 to 258 lead over the second place Axewomen. In the men's results, Acadia has an overwhelming lead of 440 points to second place Dalhousie's 224. All four teams including Dalhousie, Acadia, UNB and Mount Allison are back in the pool tomorrow at 10:00 am for the second and last session of the meet. 

Session 1 Winners: 

Leah Smal (UNB) – 200m individual medley
Elyott Chang (Acadia) – 200m individual medley 
Lise Cinq-Mars (Dalhousie) – 50m butterfly
Brett Liem (Acadia) – 50m butterfly 
Isabel Sarty (Dalhousie) - 50m freestyle 
Brett Liem (Acadia) - 50m freestyle 
Isabel Sarty (Dalhousie) – 200m freestyle
Reilly Baker (Acadia) – 200m freestyle 
Martine Nyhof (Dalhousie) – 100m backstroke
Christian Payne (Dalhousie) – 100m backstroke 
Madison Murray (Acadia) – 200m butterfly
Gordon Shortt (Acadia) – 200m butterfly 
Victoria MacDonald (Dalhousie) – 100m breaststroke
Andre Walcott (Acadia) – 100m breaststroke 
Reagan Crowell (Dalhousie) – 800m freestyle
Quinn West (Dalhousie) – 800m freestyle 
Imani Theodore (Dalhousie) – 1500m freestyle
Lucas Perkins (Dalhousie) – 1500m freestyle 
 

200m Medley Relay – Women's 
Dalhousie – Nyhof, MacDonald, Cinq-Mars, Sarty. 

200m Medley Relay – Men's  
Acadia - Sangster, Shortt, Kenny, Liem.