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

Six members of the Simon Fraser University swim team who were set to race at the NCAA Division II championships in Indianapolis next week are now ineligible after SFU was deemed non-compliant with a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) participation bylaw.

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

"SFU Athletics and Recreation 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 publication SwimSwam has reported that SFU's Kaysha Bikadi, Jordan Doner, Matthew Fuller, Tori Meklensek, Isabelle Roth and Abigail Williams had all qualified for selection to the NCAA DII championships.

According to the NCAA, SFU did not meet the bylaw minimum for swimming that requires member schools to compete in at least eight sanctioned contests with a minimum of 11 athletes.

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

CBC requested interviews with Hanson and SFU head swimming coach Demone Tissira 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."