(FREDERICTON, N.B.) The Acadia Axemen are celebrating a first. For the first time in recent memory, Acadia claimed the men's crown at an Atlantic University Sport swim meet.
Acadia finished first in the men's standings at the Amby Legere Invitational, at the University of New Brunswick.
The Axemen won the men's competition handily, beating the Dalhousie Tigers 724.5 points to 441.5.
"It's just a stepping stone. We're going to see how we do at our meet in two weeks," said Axemen head coach Gary MacDonald. "They're pretty pumped. The fact we won a meet is pretty special, and we're going to ride on that for the rest of the season."
UNB and Mount Allison finished third and fourth.
Dal took the women's title and the overall combined team title.
"Acadia is building their program and they're getting stronger and stronger, and they had a really good recruiting year," said Tigers head coach Lance Cansdale. "They came out strong, but I feel confident in our team. We have some work to do."
The Tigers won eight of the 17 events on day two of the season-opening meet.
Among the Tigers winners, Imani Theodore (Gatineau, Que.) in the women's 200m butterfly, Martine Nyhof (Sudbury, Ont.) in the women's 100m individual medley, and Christian Payne (Dartmouth, N.S.) in the men's 100m backstroke.
Gordon Shortt (Simcoe, Ont.) led the Axemen, winning the men's 100m and 200m individual medley events.
Andre Walcott (Nassau, Bahamas) won the men's 200m breaststroke for Acadia, and Brett Liem (Bedford, N.S.) won the men's 50m butterfly.
Mount Allison's Noah Mascoll-Gomes (Montreal, Que.) won his third race of the weekend, finishing first in Sunday's men's 400m freestyle.
His Mounties teammate, Abigail Flann (Tide Head, N.B.), won the women's 200m individual medley.
Leah Smal (Fredericton, N.B.) was the only UNB winner on Sunday, taking the women's 100m backstroke. Smal also finished third in the women's 50m butterfly.
The Reds' Erik Staeben (Fredericton, N.B.) was second in the men's 50m butterfly, less than 3/10ths of a second back of the winner.
"It's a different team culture this year, and everybody's training the past couple of weeks has paid off, so it's good," said Reds veteran Eric Meng. "We've had lots of close finishes, especially down to the wire, so it's nice to see people get up and take the races seriously this early in the season."
The next meet on the AUS swimming schedule is the Jack Scholz Memorial, at Acadia, Nov. 2 and 3.
"There are some quality swimmers throughout the conference and there's depth showing everywhere. The conference itself is at a real strong point right now," said Cansdale.
RECAP AND PHOTOS BY: Andy Campbell/UNB Athletics