Five conference standouts named OUA athletes of the week
Burlington, Ont. – Five conference standouts – Tyra Boug, Mark Bujnowski, Mia Friesen, Gabe Mastromatteo, and Maggie McClure – have been named OUA athletes of the week, fueled by Milk2Go Sport, for the period ending February 26, 2023.
Tyra Boug, Track & Field, Guelph
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It was a busy two days for Tyra Boug at the 2023 OUA Track & Field Championships, but a successful one at that, as she found the podium in each of her four events overall.
Boug, a senior sprinter from Kitchener, Ont., began her weekend with a gold-medal showing in the women’s 60m hurdles, finishing in a time of 8.27 seconds. She would follow that up with a silver-medal winning run of 39.06 seconds in the women’s 300m race, trailing only her teammate, Zoe Sherar, therein.
Following her individual success on Day 1, the human kinetics major would join forces with her fellow Gryphons for a pair of relay runs. The first came in the women’s 4x200m relay, wherein Boug was part of the gold-medal winning quartet that produced a time of 1:37.02, good for more than a six-second cushion over the second-place finishers. If that wasn’t enough, Boug was also part of the 4x400m relay winning group, whose time of 3:41.31 also set a new OUA meet record to close out the competition.
When the dust settled on the two days of competition, Boug wound up with three gold medals, one silver medal, and played an integral role in helping her Guelph women’s team capture their seventh consecutive OUA banner.
Mark Bujnowski, Track & Field, Guelph
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Mark Bujnowski has shone on the conference stage throughout his OUA tenure and this past weekend at the OUA Track & Field Championships was no different.
The imposing Guelph thrower added to his legacy with another double-gold outing in Windsor. To open up his latest championships, the agriculture student tossed a sensational 19.43m in the men’s weight throw, which put him 1.44m clear of the next closest competitor in the event. The gold medal therein marked his third straight OUA title in the discipline, but he wasn’t done there.
Bujnowski, a native of Mount Brydges, Ont., added to his haul with a conference record in the men’s shot put on Saturday. With an OUA meet best of 18.59m, good for 2.25m more than the next closest thrower, the fifth-year senior won his fifth straight gold medal in the event.
With his pair of gold medals in tow, Bujnowski was once again among the leading figures in helping Guelph’s men’s team take home their sixth straight conference title.
Mia Friesen, Wrestling, Brock
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Mia Friesen, a second-year psychology major, showcased her impressive abilities at the U SPORTS Wrestling Championships in Edmonton, Alta. this past weekend.
The second-year wrestler claimed the national gold medal in her 56kg weight class while representing the Brock Badgers this past weekend. En route to her top finish on the mats, Friesen earned technical fall wins over Guelph (10-0 TF) and Alberta (11-1 TF), before picking up the pin over Concordia (0:52 PF) to secure her place in the championship final.
Matching up with Calgary in the Saturday showdown, the St. Catharines, Ont. local once again put on a display as she claimed the gold medal with a spotless 10-0 technical fall victory.
Friesen would go on to be named the U SPORTS female wrestler of the year.
Gabe Mastromatteo, Swimming, Toronto
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2020 Olympian Gabe Mastromatteo earned U SPORTS men’s swimmer of the year honours following an outstanding performance at the 2023 national championships this past weekend in Victoria.
The commerce major from Kenora, Ont. won two gold medals in U SPORTS record times, while also boasting two silver-medal finishes. Mastromatteo opened the meet with a victory in the men’s 50m breaststroke in a U SPORTS record time of 27.53 seconds. He bettered McMaster’s Konrad Bald’s 2015 mark of 28.46 by almost a full second.
The following day, the Toronto standout successfully defended his 100m breaststroke title, touching the wall in 1:01.38 to better U of T’s Eli Wall’s 2016 record of 1:02.43. He would add a silver medal in the 200m breaststroke on Day 3 (2:16.61) and also helped the Blues to a second-place finish in the 400m medley relay (3:43.45) on Day 1.
Maggie McClure, Nordic Skiing, Carleton
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As a veteran member of the Carleton Nordic skiing team, Maggie McClure played a key role in the Ravens’ impressive sweep of the OUA Championships podiums this past week.
After capturing silver in the freestyle race on Day 1, finishing just over 20 seconds behind teammate Bronwyn Williams as part of a top-four sweep from the Ravens, McClure stepped up to the forefront the following day. The Halifax, N.S. product claimed gold in the classic start race, finishing the 15km race in a time of 52:37.1 to best her three teammates in yet another Carleton collection covering the top four spots. To wrap up her week at the 2023 OUA Nordic Skiing Championships, the engineering major helped the Carleton A team win the relay over the rest of the field, including their runner-up B team, by a margin of nearly 23 seconds.
For her efforts, the senior skier would be named an OUA all-star, along with five of her teammates, while helping the Ravens re-capture the women’s championship banner for the fifth time in the last six conference finales.
