RECAP: Records and qualifiers from busy weekend

The Gee-Gees swim team competed at a pair of events last weekend and had standout performances at both. Two new team records were established, and a pair of Gee-Gees women earned their first U SPORTS qualifier times. uOttawa ranked third in both the men's and women's team standings.

Davide Casarin was the top point-getter for Ottawa at the first RSEQ Cup event on Saturday. He won the 400m freestyle and was second in the 100 free, also swimming two relay events for the Garnet and Grey. On Thursday during a tri-meet with Carleton and Queen's at Montpetit Hall, the third-year Gee-Gee from Mirano, Italy, broke his own team record in the 800m free. The new mark is 7:57.89, down from the previous mark of 8:02.77. 

Abby Simms was the top point-scorer for Ottawa on Saturday as she was fifth in the 100m free, sixth in the 200m IM, and also swam two relay events where the Gee-Gees finished second. She started the 4x50m relay squad off on a team-record setting swim of 1:45.98, teaming with Morgan McCartney, Mayheve Rondeau, and Alison Riddoch for the record. Simms is a first-year biomedical science student from St. John's, NL. 

Alina Juuti qualified for her first national championships with a time of 4:22.35 in the 400 free on Saturday, good for sixth in the event just behind Adelle Yamashita-Ball who also qualified. Juuti is a fifth-year senior from Elliot Lake, Ont. who has been on the cusp of qualifying the last few seasons. 

First-year backstroker Talea Claassens also punched her ticket to nationals with a qualifying time of 1:03.24 in the 100m backstroke on Thursday at Montpetit Hall. Claassens, a biochemistry student who hails from Pretoria, South Africa placed second in the same event at the RSEQ Cup event, with a time of 1:04.26.