GUELPH, Ont. – The Golden Hawks swim team got their season started on Saturday at the University of Guelph, which hosted the OUA Sprint Invitational. 

The Golden Hawks had a very successful competition, winning the men's title. On the women's side, the Hawks fought hard and ended up in fourth place overall. 

Preliminary session:

The preliminary session saw all swimmers from all teams compete against each other with the fastest 16 swimmers advancing to the semifinals in each event. 

Many Golden Hawk women moved on to the semifinals, including:

50m freestyle: Olivia Francis

50m backstroke: Olivia Francis, Alyse Borges, Morgan Pequin 

50m breaststroke: Abby Marshall, Maxeen Mullen, Olivia Purdy

50m butterfly: Olivia Francis, Megan Smith

The women also had a third-place finish in the 4x25m medley relay and a fourth-place finish in the 4x25m freestyle relay. 

The Golden Hawk men also had a successful preliminary session with many moving on to the semifinals, including:

100m individual medley: Owen Jibb, Will Bryer, Kelton Langman, Dylan Thomas, Kent Goni, Jacob Wahba 

50m freestyle: Daniel Romagnoli, Kent Goni, Kelton Langman, Tyler Greenwood, Jacob Wahba, Dylan Thomas

50m backstroke: Will Bryer, Tyler Greenwood, Connor Cartier, Daniel Romagnoli 

50m breaststroke: Dylan Thomas, Owen Jibb, Andrew Zab, Brett Moroz 

50m butterfly: Kelton Langman, Kent Goni, Daniel Romagnoli, Will Bryer, Owen Jibb, Jacob Wahba

The men also had successful relays, including a fifth and sixth-place finish in the 4x25m medley relay and winning the 4x25m freestyle relay. 

Semifinal Session:

The ladies got the semifinal session started with a splash as the Golden Hawks fought to advance into finals. 

50m freestyle: Olivia Francis advanced to finals by winning the semifinal.

50m breaststroke: Abby Marshall, Maxeen Mullen, and Olivia Purdy advanced to finals.

50m butterfly: Olivia Francis advanced to finals.

The women had two more successful relays, with a fourth-place finish in the 4x50m medley relay. The Hawks also finished third and sixth place in the 4x50m freestyle relay. 

The men's semifinal went as follows:

100m individual medley: Kelton Langman, Owen Jibb, Will Bryer, and Kent Goni finished first, second, third, and fifth to advance to finals.

50m freestyle: Kent Goni and Daniel Romagnoli finished second and third; both advanced to finals. 

50m backstroke: rookies Tyler Greenwood and Connor Cartier both advanced to finals. 

50m breaststroke: Dylan Thomas and Owen Jibb advanced to finals. 

50m butterfly: Kelton Langman, Daniel Romagnoli, Will Bryer, and Kent Goni all advanced to finals finishing second, third, fourth and eighth. 

The men's relays stayed strong with a fourth and fifth-place finish in the 4x50m medley relay and a one-two finish in the 4x50m freestyle relay. 

Final session:

The women got the ball rolling in finals with a third-place finish in the 4x100 medley relay. The first individual final for the women was the 50m freestyle which saw rookie Olivia Francis win the event with a healthy lead.

The next final for the Hawks was the 50m breaststroke, which saw Abby Marshall finish fourth overall, Maxeen Mullen finish fifth, and rookie Olivia Purdy finish eighth overall. 

For the final individual event of the meet, Olivia Francis raced the 50m butterfly and finished seventh overall, winning more points for the purple and gold. 

The last race of the night was the crescendo relay in which two swimmers swim 50m, one swimmer swims 100m, and another swims 200m. The women's team finished strong and ended third and sixth overall.

The men also started their final session with a third-place finish in the 4x100m medley relay. In the first individual male final of the night Kent Goni, Owen Jibb, Will Bryer and Kelton Langman finished third, fourth, fifth and sixth overall in the individual medley, all earning points for the Golden Hawks. 

Next up for the men was the 50m freestyle, Daniel Romagnoli finished second and Kent Goni finished sixth overall. 

For the second time of the night a Golden Hawk rookie was going to beat all the competition, it happened in the 50m backstroke when Tyler Greenwood finished first with strong competition on his tail. Connor Cartier also ended eighth overall, both of which earned points for the Hawks. 

The men's team wasn't done chasing podium finishes as Dylan Thomas finished third overall in the 50m breaststroke with rookie Owen Jibb finishing eight. 

The podium was golden on Saturday for the last individual event of the night Kelton Langman and Daniel Romagnoli went one-two overall while Kent Goni and Will Bryer finished fourth and seventh respectively in the 50m butterfly. 

The last race of the night was the men's crescendo relay which saw the Golden Hawks top the podium one last time as the Laurier relays finished first and third respectively. 

Final Scores:

Women

1. University of Guelph – 459 
2. Brock University – 427
3. Queens University – 417
4. Wilfrid Laurier University – 338

Men

1. Wilfrid Laurier University – 540
2. Brock University – 495
3. University of Guelph – 372
4. Queens University - 215