Oakland University men???s and women???s swimming and diving teams sprinted out into the lead of the Mid-Continent Conference Swimming and Diving Championship, after two events, with a men???s score of 106 points and a women???s score of 118 points. OU???s Danielle Ward (Brighton, Michigan), 1999 Mid-Con Newcomer of the Year, started the Championship by setting a Mid-Con Championship record in the 1650 freestyle event with a time of 17:19.85, beating Buffalo???s Alexandra Barrera???s time of 17:20.77 set in 1994-95. Freshman freestyler Angela Simetkosky (Livonia, Michigan) took second place with a time of 17:47.56 and Western Illinois??? Nicole Rubin (DeForest, Illinois) finished third with a time of 18:26.29. Oakland took first and second in the 1650 freestyle event on the men???s side as junior Andy Schmit (La Mesa, California) finished first (15:54.80) and junior Marc Gray (Rochester, Michigan) took second (16:11.40). IUPUI???s John Winter II (Valparaiso, Indiana) took the third slot with a time of 16:34.17. The women???s 800 freestyle relay went to the Golden Grizzlies ???A??? team of Tamara Swaby (Kingston, Jamaica), Simetkosky, Kelly Carlin (Novi, Michigan) and Ward with a time of 7:48.81. On the men???s side, Oakland???s ???A??? team finished first as Dave Hartzel (Middletown, Deleware), Haitham Hassan (Alexandria, Egypt), Nick Sosnowski (Farmington Hills, Michigan) and Sean Broadbent (Windsor, Ontario) set an OU Aquatics Center Pool Record (6:43.31) and a Mid-Con Championship Record (6:44.44) with a time of 6:42.79. The Mid-Continent Conference Championship will continue on Friday, December 1, with the preliminaries starting at 10 a.m. and the finals at 6 p.m. The events will be the 200-yard butterfly, 200-yard freestyle, 100-yard breaststroke, 100-yard backstroke, 400-yard individual medley and the 50-yard freestyle. Men???s 3-Meter diving prelims and finals will start at 1 p.m. Women???s 1-Meter Diving prelims will start at 1 p.m. and the finals will be in the evening session starting at 6 p.m. All times are in Eastern Standard.