Laurel Roberts-Burrell came to Lake Superior State on the heels of two gold medals and a silver at the prestigious English Summer Nationals, where he won the 200 meter Backstroke and the 50 meter Backstroke.

It took him less than a day to score his first win in the United States. The Nottingham native won the 200 yard Backstroke in 1:49.64, blowing away the rest of the field and the existing LSSU record as the Lakers faced Findlay on Saturday in Ohio.

In his first collegiate swimming event, Roberts-Burrell came in about two and a half seconds shy of an NCAA "B" standard in the 200 Backstroke, and just over a second short of the "B" standard in the 100 Backstroke. He set the school record in the 100 Back as well, finishing second at 49.86, less than half of a second behind reigning GMAC Freshman of the Year Juan David Blandon Torres. It was a day to remember for the young Englishman, capping a thrilling meet for Laker Head Coach Tim O'Neill.

"I think we did a great job in the first meet for many of these swimmers, not only in college, but in the US," O'Neill said. "I'm excited with the team energy."

He praised Roberts-Burrell's swimming and pointed out that such great results in the first meet show that there's potential for even more great things in the future. "Going a time like that is certainly a really great sign."

As a team, the Lakers set 11 new school records against Findlay, a team that finished seventh nationally in Women's Swimming and Diving and eighth nationally in Men's Swimming and Diving. Women's swimmer Zita Gonda made her collegiate debut and convincingly set a pair of individual records. She finished second in the 100 Back, less than a second behind Sofia Lesmes Montes, a dominant force in the GMAC with multiple appearances at the national level. Gonda finished at 57.80, a new school record by nearly five seconds that isn't far off the "B" standard of 56.16. She also finished fourth in the 100 Free, with a time of 53.26, beating the prior LSSU record by nearly four seconds.

O'Neill was thrilled with the performances of Gonda and Sara Delic. "It's really exciting," he said. "We have the opportunity to continue breaking those barriers with this team."

For her part, Delic, another debutant, finished second in the 50 Free with a time of 24.70, less than a second behind multiple-time First Team All-American Olivia Scheibelhoffer. Delic set another school record in the process, breaking the record set at the GLIAC Championships in February.

Saturday stamped the program's progress. Going against one of the top teams in the country, scoring a win, breaking nearly a dozen program-best marks and nearly scoring a number of upset wins with a team largely swimming their first races in North America is a statement of intent for O'Neill's blossoming squads.

"Because it's such a young team with a lot of international swimmers, they're getting their first experience swimming this distance and getting the feel for a college meet," said O'Neill. "They'll have better understanding of what their times are and where they want to be and where they thought they might be, along with the changes to make to get toward those goals."

While Roberts-Burrell's win sends a loud signal flare up for LSSU, the team now spends a month preparing for Davenport's October Invitational. Throughout the season, they'll face rugged competition. The team travels to the esteemed Shark Invitational in December, heads to the excellent Ohio Northern program in January and faces Ashland the next day. Additionally, the Lakers compete several times within the extremely deep GLIAC conference.

"We're going to ramp up a lot," O'Neill said. "With that in mind, expectations also increase on what we can deliver and setting a good floor for team passion and effort, and I'm hopeful we can capitalize on that as we get into this next training cycle."

Good times arrived. But the best is still a long way out.

Download the Lake Superior State Lakers app now available on the App Store and Google Play and follow the Lakers for push notifications on the latest news.