6 SFU swimmers dropped from championships after NCAA deems university non-compliant

Six members of the Simon Fraser University swim team who were setto race at theNCAA Division II championships in Indianapolis next week are nowineligible after SFUwas deemed non-compliantwith aNational Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)participation bylaw.

In a statement, SFU's senior director of athletics said her departmentis "deeply saddened" by the news.

"SFU Athletics andRecreation sincerely apologizes for this error and the impact it has on these students," said Theresa Hanson.

"SFU Athletics learned last week that [the] SFU Swimming program did not meet selection criteria for the NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships ... A misinterpretation of what qualifies as a NCAA competition resulted in SFU being one competition short for championship selection," she said.

Hanson did not confirm the names of the swimmers. Online swimming publicationSwimSwamhas reported that SFU'sKaysha Bikadi, Jordan Doner, Matthew Fuller, Tori Meklensek, Isabelle Roth and Abigail Williams had all qualified for selection to the NCAA DII championships.

According to theNCAA, SFU did not meet the bylaw minimum for swimmingthat requires member schools to compete in at least eightsanctioned contests with a minimum of 11 athletes.

The bylawwas relaxed in the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but NCAA Division II members voted to reinstate itsfull requirement for this season.

CBC requested interviews with Hanson and SFUhead swimming coach DemoneTissira but neither made themselves available.

In her statement, Hanson said SFU will be reviewing its competition verification process "to ensure this type of error never happens again."