Banner Season: Toronto looks for championship splash in search of seventh straight double banner sweep
Toronto – The Toronto Varsity Blues have long felt right at home in the pool, especially on the provincial stage. With contenders hitting the water race after race, the Blues have managed to score both conference banners for six straight years, and as the OUA Swimming Championships are set to take off this week, the reigning champions have their sights set on a seventh straight sweep. The coveted prizes will once again take a total team effort, especially against a field filled with talent hoping to touch the wall first, but the Blues are heading to the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre with only one goal in mind.
2020 OUA Swimming Championships Fan Guide
All told, Toronto’s men will be vying for their 17th consecutive OUA title, while the Varsity Blues women are battling for their seventh straight provincial banner this weekend.
Entering his fifth and final conference meet, Osvald Nitski (Tallinn, Estonia) is a proven medal contender in every race in which he is entered. The mechanical engineering major, who was named a U SPORTS Top 8 Academic All-Canadian in 2016-17, will look to defend his 200m butterfly provincial title, but has also earned OUA gold in the 400m and 1500m freestyle events over the past four seasons.
After sitting the 2019 season out, meanwhile, fourth-year standout Cameron Kidd (Paris, Ont.) will be vying for the grand slam in the men’s 50m freestyle, having also won the 50m butterfly in the 2018 season. And according to Toronto’s head coach Byron MacDonald, “Cam is one of the top sprinters in the country,” and in what will be his final banner season outing, “winning the grand slam, never having been beaten, would be a nice way to finish off”.
A career grand slam is also in play for the women’s contingent, as fourth-year co-captain Hannah Genich (Cobourg, Ont.) looks to complete the feat in her signature 200m butterfly event. The 2019 FISU Games bronze medalist is also a threat in the 50m and 100m butterfly, as well as the 200 IM. According to MacDonald, Genich “has become one of the premier butterfliers in the country. She will dominate the flyers this weekend and it’s all due to a tremendous amount of hard work.”
Fellow fourth-year veterans Rachel Rodé (LaSalle, Ont.) and Sarah Polley (Halifax, N.S.) are also podium contenders in their respective events and will be relied upon to score some big points for the Blues this weekend. Likewise, sophomore Aleksa Gold (Toronto, Ont.) will aim to continue her breakout season at the provincial finale, entering as a threat in both the backstroke and freestyle races this weekend, all while vying for a spot on the Estonian Olympic team.
While Gold has truly broken out this season, another swimmer took the OUA by storm in her debut campaign in 2018 and will be back for more now in her third year. McMaster’s Isabelle Lei, has been impressive in her junior year, as the Surrey, B.C. native looks to add to her already impressive triple gold at the DeBray Divisional Championship (50m free, 200m free, 200m IM) with even more hardware this weekend. Such a feat is very much in Lei’s wheelhouse, as her 200m IM silver medal a year ago shows that she is no stranger to podium finishes.
While Lei will look to help the Marauders take one more step up the podium after their team silver a year ago, Mitchell Muizelaar (Mississauga, Ont.) has his sights set on leading the McMaster men into the top three. After falling just shy of the medals a year ago, the Hamilton squad will look to one of their 2019 gold medalists to push them up the standings. In fact, the fifth-year veteran picked up a pair of medals last year, including a first-place finish in the 1500m free, something he also accomplished at the most recent divisional championships as well.
Like McMaster, the Waterloo Warriors also saw one of their teams sit second, while the other finished fourth last year, and they’ll have a capable contender helping their men’s side to at least match that feat this time around. Lukas Wormald (Kitchener, Ont.) has been impressive in his sophomore campaign, earning three gold medals at the Brock Invitational, another trifecta in personal best times at the Fairweather Divisional Championships – at which he earned 77 points for his team – and broke the 100m butterfly record by 1.05 seconds at the NYAC Cup. Needless to say, the reigning OUA Rookie of the Year will be a contender in multiple categories this weekend.
The black and gold are hoping for similar results from Christina Ji (Oakville, Ont.), who has been another gold-medal glutton for the Warriors this season. The fellow second-year standout also racked up three first-place finishes at the Brock Invitational (100m IM, 50m breast, 50m freestyle) and won a silver in the 200m medley relay at the divisional championships. With Ji at the forefront, the Warriors will look to battle for a top three spot this year, which is well within their grasp after earning their best result in years in 2019.
Rounding out both podiums in 2019, the Western Mustangs are focused on maintaining a top-three position in Toronto, but also have their sights set on taking home a different colour medal. Helping the London team do just that will be a seasoned veteran and an emerging rookie, both of whom have high expectations heading into the weekend.
For the women, first-year competitor Megan Deering (Okotoks, Alta.) is a definite threat in the breaststroke, entering the weekend ranked first in the 100m and third in the 200m, respectively. She’ll be joined by one of the elites in the same category on the men’s side, as Matthew Loewen (Montréal, Que.) is back for a fifth provincial finale. The reigning OUA Male Swimmer of the Year captured three gold medals to earn that distinction a year ago, while also producing a third-place result at the 2019 U SPORTS Championships.
Someone who is confident in the pair’s ability to wreak havoc in the water is head coach Paul Midgley, regardless of whether it is their first of fifth outing. “Matt knows how to perform at the championship meets and Megan is a very consistent hard worker. I am looking forward to seeing what she can do at her first OUA championship.”
Another head coach that is excited to see what her team does this weekend is Guelph’s Chantique Payne, who is expecting big things both individually and in the relays for Gryphons teams that finished fifth in 2019. The former OUA all-star recognizes that “the key to this year’s success will definitely be getting in second swims. We have many athletes who are just on the edge of coming top 16 and scoring points at finals, so that’s the goal.”
Two of Payne’s pupils that will look to register points this weekend are Samantha Anderson and Sam Kuntz. The former, now in her fifth year, took home a silver medal at last year’s OUA Championships (200m breast) and has been named team MVP each of the past two seasons. The Newmarket, Ont. native has also finished top five in the country in the event after earning a spot in the ‘A’ finals a year ago at the U SPORTS festivities.
Kuntz, meanwhile, took home three medals during the banner season bash a year ago, finishing second in the 100m backstroke, as well as third in both the 200m back and 400m medley relay. Continuing his consistent presence on the podium would go a long way toward not only cementing the native of Bracebridge, Ont. a spot as one of the best in the province, but also toward pushing his team to a top three finish overall.
Laurentian is looking to improve on last year’s results as well and will have a pair of U SPORTS qualifiers in tow to get them in the overall medal conversation. First-year Abby McDonald (Sudbury, Ont.) will anchor the women’s side, having already secured silver medals in the 100m and 200m butterfly at divisionals. Samuel Boily-Dufour (Sarnia, Ont.) also picked up a pair of medals at the Fairweather Divisional Championships, claiming silver and bronze in the 100m and 50m freestyle, respectively.
As is the case for many of the 11 schools participating, meanwhile, teams like the Brock Badgers and Carleton Ravens will turn to their leaders in the pool to make the most of their championship aspirations.
Similar to years past, the Badgers will have Gokhan Bozyigit spearheading their banner season hopes, and he’ll do so with previous OUA medals in tow and a love for swimming that has helped change his life. “Without swimming, my life would be a mess,” said Bozyigit. “It helped me keep my mental health and sort out my problems in life. It also helped me get scholarships from my high school and Brock University, which gave me an opportunity to have a better education. And most importantly, it helped me to come to Canada.”
Certainly, the sport has meant a lot to the fourth-year veteran from Istanbul, Turkey, and he has turned that love of swimming into impressive showings at the university level. Last year on home turf, Bozyigit won a silver medal in the 1500 freestyle and a bronze in the 400 freestyle, and according to head coach Peter Bradstreet, these results are the product of focus and hard work. “He comes from a culture where hard work equals success, and that has brought him success in swimming. He does not question anything asked of him. He just tries to do it to the best of his abilities and never gives up.”
Another of this weekend’s competitors mirrors that approach in the pool and leads by example for his team in terms of his work ethic. Carleton, who saw both of their Ravens contingent finish in 10th spot a year ago, will look to follow this example, set by team captain Moustafa Kamel (Alexandria, Egypt), and find a way to navigate up the scoreboard amidst the impressive field of competitors hitting the water this weekend.
Like the aforementioned pair, fellows competitors like the Queen’s Gaels, Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks, and York Lions will also be hoping to climb the standings in the 2020 edition, which will take place at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre from Thursday, February 6 to Saturday, February 8.
Preliminaries for each day will commence at 10:00am, with the finals set to take place starting at 6:00pm on Thursday and Friday, and 4:00pm to wrap up the action on Saturday. For those not in attendance at this weekend’s banner season festivities, the entirety of the OUA Swimming Championships can be seen live on oua.tv.
