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SFU swimming 12th at NCAA Div. II nationals

Clan women improve six placings with best-ever finish at national championship meet
Burnaby Now

Freshman Adrian VanderHelm finished eighth in the 100-yard freestyle and the Simon Fraser University women’s team placed 12th overall on the final day of the NCAA Division II National Swimming and Diving championships Saturday in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The women’s team accumulated 110 points over the five-day competition, improving by six places over last year’s 18th placing. Simon Fraser trailed West Florida with 117 points and 10th-place Lindenwood with 160 points.

Queens of North Carolina won the women’s championship with 540 total points. 

VanderHelm, the first Clan male swimmer to qualify for the NCAA national championships, finished eighth in the free in 44.41 seconds. Thiago Sickert of Nova Southeastern won the race in 43.18.

Earlier in the week VanderHelm placed second in the 200-yds. free to become the Clan's first All-American from the men’s program.

Senior Nicole Cossey, who was runner-up last year in the women’s 100-yds. free, finished 14th on Saturday after narrowly missing the A Final during the preliminaries. Cossey was ninth overall in the preliminaries, falling short of the A final by two one-hundredths of a second. She swam the prelim in 50.68.

Cossey placed 14th after swimming the consolation final in a time of 51.02. 

“There were a lot of international swimmers in the event this year and it was a really competitive race,” said Clan coach Liam Donnelly in a school press release.

SFU freshman Meaghan Frenks placed 23rd in the 200-yds. breaststroke on Saturday. 

The Clan foursome of Cossey, sophomore Lauren Swistak, senior Alex Schofield and freshman Sidney Peake finished 12th in the 400-yds. free relay after placing fourth in the consolation final.

Junior diver Elizabeth Durward was a career-best 12th on the one-metre and 19th in the three-metre competition.

On Day 3, senior Carmen Nam finished seventh in the 200-yds. butterfly in a lifetime-best and program record time of 2:02.67.

Earlier, the women’s 4x100-yds. relay team of Cossey, Schofield, Grace Ni and Meaghan Frenks came sixth overall.

Cossey, Schofield, Swistak and freshman Maran Kokoszka placed fifth in the women’s 800-yds. free relay.

VanderHelm, Justin Kiedrzyn, Saveli Yungman, Gabriel Lee, Dimitar Ivanov from the men's side and Cossey, Nam and Swistak from the women's team will be competing at Canada's selection competition for the World University Games in Korea, the World Championships in Russia and the Pan American Games in Toronto from April 1-4.