Tigers off to great start at annual Kemp-Fry invitational

The first day of the 2022 Kemp-Fry Invitational Swim Meet kicked off Friday night with timed long distance finals, 800m freestyle relays and 50m butterfly, backstroke and breaststroke heats.  

Dalhousie's Logan Sparkes got things started Friday night taking first place in the men's 1500m freestyle timed final with a U SPORTS-qualifying time of 15:44.08. He was followed by fellow Tiger Ewan Maclean in second and Acadia's Myles MacTavish in third. 

Reagan Crowell got Dalhousie's second win of the evening, taking top spot in the women's 800m freestyle timed final with a U SPORTS-qualifying time of 8:51.56. Teammates Ella Dobson and Abbey Nichols were second and third, respectively. 

Veronica Hollick (DAL) got the top time in the women's 50m butterfly preliminaries to advance to tomorrow's final. She and Acadia's Sophie Rooney both posted U SPORTS-qualifying times. 

It was Acadia's Shane Kenny who finished the men's 50m butterfly with the top time of the preliminaries. He and Dalhousie swimmer Liam Ferguson both posted national championship-qualifying times. Ferguson's time of 24.69 ties fellow Tiger Nate Campbell's 2009 Dalhousie record. 

Axewoman Sophie Rooney also punched her ticket to the national championships with the top time in the women's 50m breaststroke preliminaries. 

Dean Sangster (Acadia) qualified for the national championship with a time of 25.67 in the men's 50m backstroke preliminary event. 

Acadia's Elizabeth Morrison and Ella Collins both earned U SPORTS-qualifying times in the women's 50m breaststroke event to finish ranked first and second heading into tomorrow's final. 

In the last preliminary event of the night, Acadia's Gordon Shortt had the top time of the night in the 50m breaststroke. 

The Dalhousie 4x200m relay team of Crowell, Allison McCloy, Kate Tuck and Abbey Nichols took top spot in the final with a U SPORTS-qualifying time of 8:20.39. Acadia's team of Sophie Rooney, Grace Earl, Kassidy Hamilton and Kali Lancaster was second, followed by Jessie Collett, Hannah Casey, Lauren Goodine and Elodie Martin of UNB in third. 

The Tigers also won the men's 4x200m relay with Liam Ferguson, Logan Sparkes, Ethan Boyle and Ewan Maclean edging out Acadia's team of Dean Sangster, Gordon Shortt, Marcus Vaillancourt and Cameron Ingo. The Memorial team of Matty Whelan, Logan Palmer, Mostafa Zein and Thomas Chafe finished in third. 

After the first day of competition, the Tigers lead both the men and women team results  

Point Totals 

MEN
1. Dalhousie – 101
2. Acadia – 65
3. Mount Allison – 57
4. Memorial – 53
5. UNB – 28 

WOMEN
1. Dalhousie – 131
2. Mount Allison – 50
3. Acadia – 44
4. UNB – 36
5. Memorial – 30 

The heats continue tomorrow morning, followed by finals at 5:00pm ADT. Catch the finals action live on AUSTV.