Simon Fraser sweeps

There were signs everywhere of Simon Fraser University’s dominance at the NAIA championship swimming and diving meet Saturday at the Lawrence Indoor Aquatic Center.

SFU, a school from British Columbia, stood out in every way possible. From their Canadian flags to their colorful kilts to their permanent standing position along the east edge of the pool, everybody in the LIAC knew where to find the Clan.

Where they stood out the most, however, was on the winner’s podium. The Clan had top-three finishers in almost every event en route to capturing both team championships.

For the women, it was their fifth straight. For the men, it was their second in a row and seventh in the last eight years. Both squads held off staunch challenges from California Baptist University — the men’s and women’s runner-up — Thursday before pulling away during the last two days of the meet.

“This is the most depth of the NAIA nationals that I’ve seen in quite a few years,” SFU coach Liam Donnelly said. “But the character of our women showed through and the character of our men showed through. We accomplished a lot of our goals along the way, and in the end we accomplished our major one.”

On the women’s side, California Baptist was poised to topple the Clan when it burst into the team points lead Thursday. Simon Fraser bounced back and picked up numerous titles Saturday. Freshman Kathryn Rosberg won the 400 Individual Medley and the 1,650 freestyle; senior Jennifer Kasuya cruised in the 200 backstroke; junior Amber Dykes won the 100 freestyle; and senior Kathleen Stoody won the 200 breast stroke.

“Everyone really got behind each other and cheered each other on,” said Rosberg, who finished with three individual titles and two relay victories. “Thursday was a rough day for our team, but we needed to move on from it and we pulled together really well.”

Saturday also was a banner day for the SFU men. Senior Trevor Brekke set his second NAIA record with his sensational time of 2:03.45 in the 200 breast stroke. Elliot Burger cruised in the 1,650 freestyle, Paul Wilkins won the 100 freestyle and the 400 freestyle relay team won a start-to-finish nail-biter against California Baptist to wrap up the title.

“There’s no better way to go out than this,” Brekke said of the team title. “I’ve got goose bumps right now and it just feels unreal. I’ll be sad to not be a part of this again, but it’s been a good four years.”