SWIMMING ROUNDUP: Schools race at Ontario Cup
McMaster Marauders:
Hamilton, Ont. - The McMaster swim team hosted a duel on Friday afternoon against the visiting Ottawa Gee-Gees. A number of Marauders earned gold medals at the meet including Sarah Taylor, Lynnaea Mulligan, Michael MacDonald, Mostafa Ghoneim, Konrad Bald, Cameron Bailey, Matthew Vogelzang, and Ben Stubbs.
For the women, Taylor earned herself two golds. The first came in the 50 free with a time of 25.89 and the second was for the 50 fly with a time of 27.87. Mulligan was the only other Marauders on the women's team to take home first place and that was in the 200 fly with a time of 2:26.23.
Other notable finishes for the women's team included Meg Sloan's second place in the 100 free, Alexandra VanOmmen's silver in the 50 breast, and Erin MacFadyen's second place finish in the 200 breast. Taylor took second place in the 200 IM as well.
MacDonald took home two golds at the meet in the 100 free with a time of 52.02 and 200 free at 1:54.43. Ghoneim finished first in the 50 back with a time of 32.94 and Bald finishes the 50 breast with a time of 29.23 for first in that race. Bailey won tow races at the meet and was the winner of the 200 breast at 2:50.76, as well as the winner of the 200 IM at 2:05.41. Finally, Stubbs took home gold in the 200 fly with a time of 2:03.75 and Vogelzang finished first in the 50 fly at 25.44.
For the men, finishing second included Jeff Braches in the 50 free, MacDonald in the 400 free, and Ian Blechta in the 50 breast. Stubbs finished with a silver in the 50 back as well as the 200 back and Bald took home silver in the 200 breast. In the 200 IM, Bald also finished second behind teammate Bailey.
The Marauders take part in a Quad Meet at the end of the month and will compete at the OUA Championships on February 8, 2012.
Source: Marauders Athletics
Ottawa Gee-Gees:
The Gee-Gees closed their day of racing at the Ontario Cup, concluding their final meet until OUA Championships in February. And it was rookie Sherry Patel (Mississauga, Ont.) that stole the show for the Gee-Gees with her stunning performances in all her events.
“A lot of people had really great races this weekend, especially considering we just came of training camp,” said Patel after the meet, “Coming into OUA’s tapered, the team will do really well and hopefully we’ll have more CIS qualifiers. “
Third-year Adam Best (Ottawa, Ont.) dominated in his usual forte tonight, coming out with gold in the 100m backstroke and a bronze in the 50m backstroke.
“It was a great meet for the Gee-Gees,” said head coach Claude-Yves Bertrand, “We head home now for our final preparation before OUA and the CIS championships. All the hard work is done, it is now time to fine tune the small technical details, get some serious rest, and start getting excited to swim fast.”
“I am extremely impressed with our performance throughout the entire weekend,” said men’s team captain Bernard Joosten (Ottawa, Ont.) who clocked in at 30.88 in the 50m breaststroke for his highest finish of the weekend at fourth. “We had phenomenal races throughout each session, constantly stepping up and beating the swimmer next to us. “
“This weekend reflected the hard work the team’s been going through since September, a lot of good and strong swims,” said second-year Jacob Sammon, “We are finally ready the race fast and get more CIS qualifiers at OUA’s and show them what uOttawa is made of!”
The OUA Championships will be held at Laurentian University February 9-11, 2012.
Toronto Varsity Blues:
The Varsity Blues men’s and women’s swimming team co-hosted the 2012 Ontario Cup with the Toronto Swim Club, January 20-22, at Varsity Pool.
The Blues earned eight gold, 13 silver and nine bronze medals over the three-day affair.
Leading the way for the women was a veteran distance freestyler Heather Maitland. The Toronto native placed first in both the 200 and 400 freestyle events, and also picked up the silver medal in the 800 free.
Sophomore standout Vanessa Treasure of Mississauga, Ont., won four medals in three days. Treasure topped all swimmers in the 200 butterfly, while also placing second in the 200 and 400 IM and third in the 100 butterfly.
Veteran Andrea Jurenovski rounded out Toronto’s top female finishers with a second-place finish in the 50 freestyle and three bronze medals in the 50 and 100 backstroke events and 200 freestyle.
Leading the way in men’s action was second-year swimmer Jeremie Holdom. The Toronto native finished first in the 400 IM, earned two silver medals in the 200 breaststroke and 200 IM and placed third in the 100 breaststroke.
Rookie Graham Hawes of Scarborough, Ont., finished first in the 50-metre backstroke, and also finished second in both the 100- and 200 backstroke events.
The Varsity Blues return to the pool February 9-11 as they travel to Sudbury, Ont., for the 2012 OUA championships hosted by Laurentian University.
Source: Varsity Blues Athletics
Waterloo Warriors:
Many of the top Warriors swimmers took on the best Ontario has to offer this past weekend at U of T. There were Olympians and aspiring Olympians in every event as they prepare for Olympic Trials coming up in only eight weeks. A few Warriors distinguished themselves by being competitive in this environment.
Graeme Kemp was second in the 400 IM in a very swift 4:38 time. Graeme also had solid 200 back and 200 breast swims. Wesley Greig (Arnprior) had a powerful 200 breast to place fourth. Greg Gambino (Barrie) had a top 10 finish in the 100 free and was solid in the 50.
The full team has only two more meets prior to OUA champs. This Saturday the team is at Brock to challenge the Badgers and Western while Sunday the final home meet of the year has the Warriors hosting Laurentian with racing starting at 11 a.m.
Source: Warriors Athletics
