Rolando Hernandez, Erin Lawrance and Andrew Woinoski all had memorable meets for Simon Fraser University at the Husky Invitational in Federal Way, Wash., last week.
Hernandez, a native of Mexico City who trained with New Westminster’s Hyack Swim Club, was the top male swimmer after setting an SFU all-time record in the 200-yard backstoke and finishing top-three in three races during the meet.
He and Woinoski, a Simon Fraser Aquatics product, were the top two swimmers in the High Point award, achieving the highest individual points overall. Hernandez was first with 112 points followed by Woinoski, a Burnaby Mountain Secondary grad, with 80 points.
Their efforts set the SFU men’s team to third place overall, matched by Lawrance and the SFU women.
UC Santa Barbara won the collegiate men’s competition with 643 points. The SFU men stood third with 535 points.
The Clan women were third behind the University of Nevada-Reno, who ran away with it on 1,388.5 points, followed by San Diego with 732 and Simon Fraser with 390.
Five SFU swimmers achieved NCAA ‘B’ standards in 14 races, making themselves eligible to swim the event at NCAA nationals if selected.
Hernandez won the 400-yard individual medley (IM) and was third in the 200 freestyle on Saturday. But he hit the mark again on the last day of competition, setting an SFU all-time record in the 200-yard backstroke.
A sophomore, Hernandez finished second in a time of 1:47.60, beating the SFU record of 1:47.73 set by Gabriel Lee last season. SFU’s Jayden Cole touched the wall in sixth place in 1:52.42.
Hernandez went on to place fifth in the 100-yard freestyle later that night in a time of 45.60, in the A-final.
Along with Hernandez's new team mark, Lawrance put her name in the SFU record books. A freshman from Victoria, Lawrance placed fifth in the women’s 400-yard IM (4.25.72) Saturday, breaking Carmen Nam’s school record of 4:25.95, set in 2015.
The next day Jessie Gibson swam a very strong 200-yard backstroke, earning her a fifth-place finish in 2:02.49.
Senior Meaghan Frenks came in fifth in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:20.83, crushing her prelim time by three seconds.
In the 200-yard breaststroke on the men’s side, Woinoski placed sixth in 2:07.7, followed by Thomas Lychy in 10th.
The Clan’s distance swimmers racked up the points in the 1650-yard freestyle as Kristen Olvet placed sixth with a great finish of 17:20.21, and Lawrance followed in 11th place. On the men’s side, SFU swimmers secured second and third place with Woinoski and Mackenzie Hamill posting times of 15:42.04 and 15;45.64, respectively.
Lawrance continued the night with an A-final swim in the 200-yard butterfly, placing fifth in 2:03.67, while Alicia Kan swam in the C-final, finishng 18th. On the men’s side, New Westminster native Amar Fejzic touched the wall in second place in a 1:50.65, two seconds faster than his morning swim in the 200-yard butterfly.
The Husky Invitational was the Clan’s last swim meet of 2017, as they head to training camp in Arizona later this month. Their next swim meet will be in late January.
