Varsity Blues Stafford, Rams Forrest earn OUA Athlete of the Week honours
Burlington, Ont. – Lucia Stafford and Garrett Forrest have been named Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Athletes of the Week for the period ending November 10, 2019.
Female Athlete of the Week – Lucia Stafford, Toronto Varsity Blues, Cross Country
The individual accolades just keep coming for Lucia Stafford, as she once again came through with a top finish for the Toronto Varsity Blues women’s cross country team, albeit on the national stage this time around.
Stafford won the individual gold medal at the 2019 U SPORTS cross country championships on Saturday in Kingston, matching the result she captured at the OUA finale just two weeks prior. The fourth-year engineering major crossed the 8km finish line in 27:30.3, almost a full 14 seconds ahead of silver medalist Anne-Marie Comeau of the Laval Rouge et Or. A Toronto native, Stafford earned her first U SPORTS cross country athlete of the year honour, as well as a first team all-Canadian nod for the third time in her cross country career.
Stafford is the second Varsity Blue to win the U SPORTS individual gold medal in the past three years, after Sasha Gollish claimed the title in 2017.
Male Athlete of the Week – Garrett Forrest, Ryerson Rams, Hockey
A stingy stretch of play for the Ryerson Rams men’s hockey team has them firing on all cylinders of late; a streak that continued into the team’s two games this past week thanks in large part to Garrett Forrest’s performance between the pipes.
Forrest’s fantastic play was a sparkplug for the Rams’ latest two victories. On Wednesday night, the second-year net minder stopped 28 of 30 shots he saw in regulation and overtime, then stopped all three shootout skaters as Ryerson beat Nipissing 3-2. Forrest then stopped 21 of 22 shots he faced on Saturday night as Ryerson beat the defending OUA champion Queen's Gaels. The Ashburn, VA native proved time and time again that he was up to any challenge thrown his way, even when staring down a trio of shootout attempts, and racked up a .942 save percentage as a result.
Overall, Forrest has now won four straight games and his 1.85 goals against average this season now ranks him 3rd in the OUA.
