Smal and Sinclair Pace REDS On Day 1
(SAINT JOHN, NB) The Dalhousie Tigers won half of the 12 events on the first day of competition at the 2025 Atlantic University Sport Swimming Championships, presented by Bell, in Saint John.
The event is being held at Saint John's Canada Games Aquatic Centre.
The Tigers began the evening finals session with Emma Carrier-Clark winning the women's 200-metre freestyle.
Acadia's David Harvie followed with a win in the men's 200-metre freestyle ahead of five Tigers who finished second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth.
UNB's Blake Kingston scored the first of three wins on the night for the host REDS, taking gold in the men's 100-metre breaststroke in a U SPORTS Championship qualifying time of 1:00.38. Kingston finished more than 2.5 seconds ahead of second place, Dal's Connor Maloney.
Acadia's Ella Collins won the women's 100-metre breaststroke, and she too posted a U SPORTS Championship qualifying time, winning in 1:09.36, just ahead of teammate Chloe Popp, who also qualified for the national championship meet.
Memorial's Chris Weeks won the men's 100-metre butterfly in a U SPORTS qualifying time of 53.74 seconds. Acadia's Nate Thompson swam second and also posted a time that qualifies him for the U SPORTS Championships.
In the women's 100-metre butterfly, UNB's Emma Sinclair raced to victory in a U SPORTS Championship qualifying time of 1:02.21. She beat Dal's Mia Stein-Blumberg by 6/10ths of a second.
Sinclair's REDS' teammate Leah Smal followed with a win in the women's 50-metre backstroke. Smal beat Acadia's Sophie Rooney by a mere 15/100ths of a second and Grace Earl by almost 4/10ths of a second.
Dal's Liam Ferguson won the men's 50-metre backstroke. He beat three teammates to the wall as the Tigers swept the medal podium and took fourth place in the event. Ferguson's winning time was good enough to qualify him for the national championships.
The Tigers won the women's 4-by-100-metre freestyle relay. Acadia took the silver and UNB the bronze.
In the men's 4-by-100-metre freestyle relay, the Axemen beat Dal and Memorial to the wall. Just 12/100ths of a second separated first and second place.
After the first day of competition, Acadia leads Dal by four points in the women's team standings. UNB is third, followed by Memorial and Mount Allison.
Dal leads the men's team standings, ahead of Acadia, UNB, the Sea-Hawks, and Mounties.
Day two goes Saturday. Preliminaries begin at 10:0am AST and finals are scheduled for 6:00pm.
RECAP BY: Andy Campbell/UNB Athletics
ACTION PHOTOS BY: Andy Campbell/UNB Athletics
PODIUM PHOTOS BY: Emily Titus/for UNB Athletics