MacLeod Grabs Gold On Day 2 At AUS

(ST. JOHN'S, NL) Veterans Hannah MacLeod and Blake Kingston led a very productive UNB REDS effort on day two of the 2026 Atlantic University Sport Swimming Championships, in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.

Kingston won the men's 50-metre freestyle and 200-metre breaststroke, his second and third wins of the weekend. His time of 2:13.63 in the breaststroke also qualified him in that event for the U SPORTS Championships.

MacLeod raced to victory in the women's 50-metre butterfly, besting second place by just 9/100ths of a second, and grabbed the silver medal in the women's 50-metre freestyle where her time of 26.23 was just 3/100ths off the winner's and qualified her for the national championship meet. UNB's Maria McDougall earned the bronze medal in the race.

"You don't have a lot of time in the 50s, and I remember thinking just push," said MacLeod. "I just wanted to get my hand to the wall as fast as I could. I didn't see where I'd placed, but saw my time was under the U SPORTS qualifying time and I was ecstatic."

"In the 50 fly, I pushed as hard as I could and was able to touch first," added MacLeod. "It's an awesome feeling to be able to accomplish that goal at my last AUS Championships."

UNB's Maxime Kenny won his second race of the weekend, touching first in the men's 100-metre backstroke. UNB's Will Franklin was third.

"I had a chance to celebrate it on the podium with Will, a long-time friendly rival," said Kenny. "Throughout our high school years, we pushed each other to be better competitors. Being able to give everything we had and then stand together on the podium was truly a dream come true."

Kenny added a bronze medal to his haul with a third-place finish in the men's 50 fly. He finished just ahead of teammate Matthew deGoey.

Bronwyn Preece swam to a silver medal in the women's 100-metre backstroke, finishing just 4/10ths of a second back of the winner.

UNB also earned silver medals in the women's and men's 4-by-200-metre freestyle relays.

After two days, the REDS men sit second in the team standings while the women are third.

The conference championships wrap up Sunday with qualifying heats in the morning and finals in the evening.

STORY BY: Andy Campbell/UNB REDS

PHOTO BY: Udantha Chandraratne/for Memorial Athletics