MARKHAM, Ont. – The Laurier Golden Hawks closed out the 2026 U SPORTS Swimming Championships on a high note Saturday, posting more personal-best times and another a team record at the Markham Pan Am Centre.
Laurier opened the day in the preliminary session with John Ryan competing in the men's 50-metre breaststroke. In a tightly contested heat, Ryan touched the wall first with a new personal-best time of 28.45.
George Radic followed in the men's 100-metre freestyle, racing in a heat that included an Olympian. Radic won the heat with a personal-best time of 50.55.
Owen Jibb capped Laurier's individual preliminary swims in the men's 1,500-metre freestyle. Competing in the fastest heat of the morning, Jibb delivered a standout performance, recording a personal-best and Laurier team-record time of 15:46.42.
The swim broke a long-standing program record of 15:49.48 set by Jonathan Long on May 3, 2004 - previously tied as the oldest record in Laurier men's swimming.
The evening finals session began with the graduate recognition ceremony, where Will Bryer represented Laurier as the program's lone graduating athlete at the championships, carrying the Golden Hawks banner in his final appearance at nationals.
The fastest heat of the men's 1,500-metre freestyle was contested during the finals session, where Jibb ultimately finished 16th overall in the national standings.
Laurier wrapped up the meet in the men's 4x100-metre medley relay. Bryer led off in the backstroke in his final race for the Golden Hawks. Ryan followed with the breaststroke leg, posting the fastest 100-metre breaststroke relay split in program history at 1:01.18. Andy Jiang swam the butterfly leg before Greg Hayward anchored the freestyle leg with a personal-best time of 50.04.
The Golden Hawks touched the wall in 3:43.35, shaving more than a second off their qualifying time from the 2026 OUA Swimming Championships.
Laurier finished 14th overall in the men's team standings with 110 points, improving on their score from the previous season.
The University of British Columbia claimed the national title with 1,644 points, followed by Toronto (935.5) and Calgary (883.5).
