November 25, 2014

SWIMMING ROUNDUP: Tihanyi Division Championships

This weekend officially marked the halfway point in the season for the Voyageurs swim team. After a great start to the season, the Laurentian swimmers show no signs of slowing down in the pool. On the first day of the Tihanyi Divisional Championship meet this past weekend, both the men and women dominated the score board.

The Laurentian women started the weekend finishing first in the 200m freestyle relay swam by Julie Langlois, Riley Konrad, Linda Ferguson and Julia Nowicki with a time of 1:47.24. Konrad also came in first place in the 400 meter IM which she finished in 5:05.46. Other first place swimmers on the day were Madeline Stever in the 100m breaststroke (1:14.74) and Lea Paulus in the 800m freestyle (9:24.71). Besides ranking top three in numerous events throughout the session, the highlight of the day was Laurentian's own Julie Langlois qualifying for nationals with a third place finish in the 50m free in a time of 26.52 seconds.

The Voyageur men had a successful day as well, also finishing in the top three for numerous events. They proved Voyageur dominance in the 200m freestyle relay, finishing first with a time of 1:37.36, led by Matthew Schouten, David Ahong, James Sutherland and Christian Baldesarra. Both Schouten and Ahong followed that up with individual first place finishes in the 50m freestyle (23.90) and 1500m freestyle (16:55.40), respectively.

Day one ended with the Voyageur women in first place over the University of Waterloo, WLU, Queens, Brock, York and Carleton. The Voyageur men finished the day in second place, just behind Waterloo.

Day two of the meet was much of the same story as the Voyageurs made a point of keeping their winning streak alive. First place swimmers on the women's side included Konrad in the 200m IM (2:22.12) and 50m breaststroke (34.34), and Stever in the 200m breaststroke (2:43.17). The men swam hard to keep up with the Waterloo Warriors, led by a first place finish from Schouten in the 100m freestyle (52.42). Day 2 ended with the Laurentian Voyageur women finishing number one, almost 400 points ahead of second place Waterloo, and the Voyageur men finishing 2^nd behind the Warriors, good for number one overall.

The Voyageurs are back in action this weekend as they host time trial events at the Jeno Tihanyi Olympic Gold Pool beginning at 8:30am on Saturday. Continue to follow your Voyageurs at www.luvoyageurs.com for up-to-date news and results.

Laurentian University's Department of Athletics is home to 18 varsity sports teams. The Voyageurs decorated history of pride and tradition includes 62 provincial championships as well as 10 national championships in 52 years of competition.

Source: Laurentian Voyageurs

Warrior men win Tihanyi Divisional Championships

A great team effort throughout a tough few days of racing resulted in the men's team title from the OUA Tihanyi Divisional swim champs at Wilfrid Laurier University.

Graeme Kemp (Waterloo) continued to show true grit by seeking out tough races throughout the meet, skipping a couple of his best, and still winning all 4 of his events; all in personal best times. Jon Ramkissoon was close behind with 3 wins; sweeping the breaststroke events. Brian Dohler (Smithers) proved that hard work does pay off with 2 wins in the IM events.

The men also dominated the relays on Sunday with convincing wins in the 4 X 50 medley relay (Kemp, Ramkissoon, Logan Money (Brantford) and Zao Chen (Ottawa)) and the 4 X 100 free relay (Danyon Chu (Markham), Eric Woolven (Toronto), Kemp and David Mallett (Kitchener)). Special mention needs to go Malcolm Good (Oakville) who had a break out weekend with lifetime best swims across the board and huge drops in some of his events.

The women's team finished second behind Laurentian in the team standings on the weekend. They had some excellent performances throughout the meet. Josie Andres (Thorndale) broke the women's team record in the 50 fly and the 100 fly with her events wins and added a win in the 50 free. Ola Jozwiak (Mississauga) won the 100, 200 and 400 free. Ola's 100 free winning time of 58.31 broke the oldest women's team record that had stood since 1984.

Like the men, the women were huge on the relays Sunday with Frances Heather (Waterloo), Andres, Alexandria Chow (Newmarket) and Linda Wang (Oakville) combining for the win in the 200 medley relay and later Chow, Jozwiak, Wang and Tamara Shaw (Ottawa) won the 400 free relay. Both of these swims were team records by wide margins.

Overall, there were several strong themes in the meet and the performances of the swimmers. The youth in this group is pushing some of the veterans to new heights and there is positive, healthy competition to earn spots on relays, fight for placings and test each other in practice.

The men's depth and sprint speed is improving and making the Warriors more competitive in relays and their dual meets while the Waterloo swim teams have fantastic support from alumni, friends and family who filled the stands for both sessions.

At a lunch with the parent's after Sunday's session, it was repeated many times how much fun the swimmers were having, how much work they were doing and how great the rewards were for these efforts; a great environment for the student athletes to continue to flourish in.

The Warriors will be in St. Catherines next Saturday as the Warriors will be competing at the Badger Invitational 2 in their last competition before the holiday break.

Source: Waterloo Warriors

WATERLOO, Ont. (November 24, 2014) - Led by strong performances from Kate Vanderbeek of Hamilton, and Dean Bennett of Kitchener, Ont., the host Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks swim team finished third overall at the 2014 OUA Tihanyi Divisionals meet at the Athletic Complex pool this past weekend.

As a team, the purple and gold brought home 24 medals from the meet and finished with a combined team score of 1131, good for third place behind the Laurentian Voyageurs (1837 points) and the Waterloo Warriors (1680 points) at the seven-team meet.

Leading the way for Laurier in the women's events was second year backstroke specialist Vanderbeek. The kinesiology and physical education major had an impressive showing winning gold in all three backstroke events. In particular, her performance in the 50m backstroke, which she won in a time of 29.18 seconds, qualified her for her third race at the CIS Championships in March.

Vanderbeek's three other medals came from two relay results and the 100m freestyle. In the 200m medley relay, she teamed up with Miranda Smelt of Toronto, Helen Pu of Richmond Hill, Ont., and Nicole Dickens of Windsor, Ont., to win silver. She would follow that up with a bronze in the 200m freestyle relay, winning that medal with Samantha Lacroix of Toronto, Dickens and Kristen Thompson of Ajax, Ont., as well as a bronze in the 100m free.

Other strong showings from Laurier's women came from Smelt who won four total medals (three silver, one bronze), and Thompson who won three medals, all bronze.

As for Bennett, he led a great showing by the Laurier men to as he won two gold and three silver medals over the two-day meet. Also a backstroke specialist, he won gold in both the 50m and 100m disciplines while adding silvers in two other individual events, the 100m butterfly and the 50m free. He rounded out his weekend by teaming up with Richard Naylor of Tottenham, Ont., Andrew Beaton-Williamson of Southampton, Ont., and Scott McAuley of Newmarket, Ont., to win silver in the 200m medley relay.

Two of his teammates in that medley relay, Beaton-Williamson and McAuley, were also very good for Laurier this past weekend. Beaton-Williamson, a butterfly specialist, won gold in both the 50m and 100m events in addition to his silver medal in the relay. As for McAuley, like Bennett, he also won five medals, winning three additional silver medals as well as a bronze.

One highlight for Laurier's men came in the 100m buttefly when Beaton-Williamson, Bennett and Nicholas Misner of Brantford, Ont., combined to sweep gold, silver and bronze for the purple and gold.

A complete list of Laurier's medal winners and team standings can be found below.

The purple and gold will wrap up their fall semester competition schedule on Saturday, November 29 when they head to St. Catharines, Ont., for the Brock Badgers Invitational.

Source: Laurier Golden Hawks

Brock swimmers place fifth at Tihanyi OUA Division Championships

WATERLOO, Ont. - The Brock University men's and women's swim teams had a good performance at the 2014 Tihanyi OUA Division Championships hosted by Wilfrid Laurier University.

Having a strong meet for the Brock women was Rachel Nogard who took home one gold and two silver. She won gold in the Women 200m Butterfly (2:20.21) and took home silver in both the 100m Butterfly (1:04.28) and 200m Backstroke (2:21.94). She also placed fifth in the 100m Backstroke (1:07.33).

Laura Perry placed second in the 100m Backstroke (1:06.11) and fourth in both the 50m Backstroke (31.01) and 200m Backstroke (2:24.59). Jaclyn Edwards was third in the 800m Freestyle (9:33.1), fourth in the 400m Freestyle (4:43.68) and seventh in the 200m Freestyle (2:16.52). Rounding out the Badgers top finishes were Ashley Duquette (8th - 200 SC Meter Freestyle - 2:17.90), Lesley Risdale (8th - 200m IM - 2:59.27) and Brittany Lewis (8th - 200m Breaststroke - 3:01.00).

In the Relay events, the Brock women placed fourth in the 200m Medley Relay (2:08.05 - Perry, Lewis, Nogard and Abigael Layton) and were sixth overall in the 400m Freestyle Relay (4:16.62 - Nogard, Duquette, Edwards and Freya Lewis).

For the Brock men, Curtis Li finished with fourth place finishes in three events, including the 100m Breaststroke (1:07.15), 50m Freestyle (24.51) and 50m Breaststroke (30.28). Charles Kim also had three top performances finishing fourth in the 400m Freestyle (4:17.92), fifth in the 200m Breaststroke (2:30.96) and eighth in the 100m Breaststroke (1:09.73).

In the Relay events, the Brock men placed seventh in both the 200m Medley Relay (1:55.93 - Jeff Belowitz, Curtis Li, Charles Kim and Kyle Huisman) and 400m Freestyle Relay (3:54.09 - Kim, Belowitz, Huisman and Stephen Blankenship ).

Source: Brock Badgers

Ravens Swim Team Success at OUA Tihanyi Division Championship

The swim team travelled to Wilfred Laurier University in Waterloo for the OUA Tihanyi Division Championships on November 22-23. Both the men's and the women's teams finished 7^th with 31 and 9 points, respectively.

David Mackie was Carleton's top scorer earning a total of 27 points with a 6^th place finish in 1500m freestyle; 10^th in 400m freestyle; 13^th in 200m freestyle; and 14^th in 100m freestyle. The top scorer for the women was Kathryn Hrycusko with 7 points for 10^th in 200m breaststroke. Tyesha McGann scored 2 points with 16^th place finishes in 100m and 200m backstroke. Thomas Leigh and Tristan Ogilvie also each scored 2 points with 15^th place finishes in 50m and 100m butterfly, respectively.

David's 1500m freestyle time was the 8^th best ever by a Raven, while his 400m freestyle time is 12^th on the all-time list. Kathryn's 200m breaststroke time is the 14^th best Carleton time, and Tyesha's 200m backstroke is 16^th on the list.

Other Carleton best times were: