ROCHESTER, NY - Jamestown Community College's men's and women's swimming and diving teams embarked on the 2024 NJCAA Region 3 Swimming and Diving Championships on Friday, with day one of three hosted by Monroe Community College.

The Jayhawks women made an early splash as Lindsey Spitz captured first in the 50-yard breaststroke with a time of 32.88. That was less than two-tenths off of the meet record and over a second faster than the sophomore was when she won the event in the Region 3 championship last year.

Jamestown was also on top of the podium in the 1,000-yard freestyle. Ella Fosberg took the top spot, with teammate Anna Jones just two spots behind in third.

It was an all-JCC top three in the ladies' 200-yard individual medley. Spitz once again brought home the gold with a time of 2:28:36. She was followed up by Hayley Dawson, who earned silver, and Stacey Blackler captured bronze.

Women's 50-yard free, Paiden Wittmeyer took first by almost a second and a half with a time of 26.53. Ashlynn Swan and Shaylnn Owens earned seventh and eighth.

The record books were dusted off in the 800-yard free, JCC's team of Fosberg, Blackler, Jones, and Dawson posted a championship mark of 9:12:79.

On the men's side, Brady Lindstrom started the Jayhawks off with a bang by winning the 50-yard breaststroke. Teammate Toby Gifford joined him in the top three by bringing a third back to Jamestown. Randall Hall and Rinat Kalimullin claimed a sixth and seventh-place finish. 

200 IM, Colton Schuman clocked a fourth-place spot.

Maxim Johnson repeated as the 50-yard freestyle champion with a time of 22.17. He clipped over half of a second off of his time championship time from 2023.

800-yard free relay, the team of Lukas Baer, Schuman, Hall, and Kalimullin brought home the final podium of the night for Jamestown with a third-place finish.

"As a great first session for us, we wanted to come out fast and aggressive, and the kids did a great job of having high energy and getting the meet started. We started off fast with Lindsay Spitz, and Brady Lindstrom, both winning the 50 breaststroke Brady Lindstrom's time was a new school. We ended the night on a higher note when the 800 free relay girls' team broke the school record by 12 seconds. Very excited for day two as this is the biggest day of this four-day meet. We're looking for some more tremendous swims and hopefully a record-setting day to really put us in a great position for Sunday. I'm feeling great with the way the kids are swimming and looking forward to some great results today," said head coach Todd Conklin.

The JCC men and women will be back in the water tomorrow, Saturday, February 17th, for session two at 10:00 AM and session three at 5:00 PM.