2017 OUA Championships: Day 1 Results and Recap

2017 OUA CHAMPIONSHIPS

• February 9th-11th, 2017
• Varsity Pool, Toronto, Ont.
• Hosted by University of Toronto
• Prelims: 10:00 a.m ET
• Finals: 6:00 p.m ET
• Psych Sheets
• Live results 
• Live video

The 2017 OUA Championships hosted by the University of Toronto began today, featuring the best university teams in Ontario, among them some of Team Canada’s best athletes, including Rio Olympic bronze medalist Kylie Masse.  Find the complete SwimSwam preview of the OUA Championships here.

In this morning’s prelims Masse dominated the women’s 100 backstroke with a 57.43, finishing a full 5 seconds ahead of tonight’s 2nd-seed Rachel Rode.  The men’s 100 back prelim was much tighter, with the top 8 all within about 1 second of each other, and the top 4 all within 3-tenths of one another.  Jasmine Raines established a 4-second lead going into tonight’s final of the women’s 200 breast, but whether or not the rest of the field was going 100% or just trying to qualify could potentially shake up the outcome of tonight’s race. Osvald Nitski was the only swimmer in the men’s 200 fly to crack 2:01, which he accomplished with a 1:59.69.  The 50 freestyle for both men and women is also tonight, and per usual, the swimmers are all bunched up very tightly.

Women’s 200 Free Relay

The team from host University of Toronto charged to victory in a new championships record time of 1:42.97 tonight, nearly a full two seconds ahead of the second place finishers from McMaster University.

1. GOLD: University of Toronto, 1:42.97 (Russell, Sbaraglia, Rode, Polley)
2. SILVER: MACU, 1:44.92 (Dvorski, Chow, McDonald, Mittermaier)
3. BRONZE: Western University, 1:45.39 (Hotta, Huddle, Hess, Fairholm)

Men’s 200 Free Relay

The University of Toronto went two-for-two in relay wins and records tonight as the men’s team crushed the field by nearly three seconds, also crushing the previous record of 1:30.29 by 3-tenths of a second.

1. GOLD: University of Toronto, 1:29.97 (Dans, Ferraro, McGillivray, Kidd)
2. SILVER: Waterloo, 1:32.67 (Lojko, Chu, Ramkissoon, Chow)
3. BRONZE: Western University, 1:33.29 (Waddell, Siu, Lethbridge, Fox)

Women’s 400 Freestyle

Clenching the third-straight victory for the University of Toronto, Sophia Saroukian demolished the field in the 400 freestyle, finishing 2-and-a-half second ahead of second-place Keira Brazeau from Western University.  It was a tight battle for third place with Delphin Vandal from Ottowa overtaking Victoria Radounski in the final 50 to claim bronze by a mere 6-one-hundredths of a second.

1. GOLD: Sophia Saroukian, University of Toronto, 4:15.86
2. SILVER: Keira Brazeau, Western University, 4:18.33
3. BRONZE: Delphin Vandal, University of Ottowa, 4:19.28

Men’s 400 Freestyle

Osvald Nitski and Ian MacKinnon continued Toronto’s dominance by going 1-2 in the men’s 400 freestyle tonight, pulling way ahead of the rest of the field to pick up some big points for Varsity Blues.

1. GOLD: Osvald Nitski, University of Toronto, 3:51.28
2. SILVER: Ian MacKinnon, University of Toronto, 3:52.64
3. BRONZE: Sebastian Paulins, Western University, 3:56.56

Women’s 100 Backstroke

Kylie Masse dominated the women’s 100 backstroke, winning the race by nearly 5 seconds and taking three-quarters-of-a-second off her seed time.  Masse’s Teammate Rachel Rodes finished 2nd in 1:01.33, and Emily Anzai of Guelph and Charis Huddle of Western University tied for the bronze in 1:01.41.  Masse’s time tonight was just off her own meet record of 56.55, set in 2016.

1. GOLD: Kylie Masse, University of Toronto, 56.70
2. SILVER: Rachel Rode, University of Toronto, 1:01.33
3. BRONZE: Emily Anzai, University of Guelph/Charis Huddle, Western University, 1:01.41

Men’s 100 Backstroke

Kyle Haas of the University of Toronto won the men’s 100 backstroke tonight and slipped under the 55-second barrier with a time of 54.88, out-touching Matthew Fox and Gordon Barkwell, both from Western University, who finished 2nd and 3rd in times of 55.03 and 55.05, respectively.

1. GOLD: Kyle Haas, University of Toronto, 54.88
2. SILVER: Matthew Fox, Western University, 55.03
3. BRONZE: Gordon Barkwell, Western University, 55.05

Women’s 200 Breaststroke

The University of Waterloo picked up its first win of the night with Jasmine Raines, who held onto her top seed and shaved some time off her morning swim en route to the gold.  Coming in 2nd was University of Toronto’s Rachael Parsons, and in 3rd Ottowa’s Paige Crowell.

1. GOLD: Jasmine Raines, University of Waterloo, 2:27.63
2. SILVER: Rachael Parsons, University of Toronto, 2:29.82
3. BRONZE: Paige Crowell, University of Ottowa, 2:32.81

Men’s 200 Breaststroke

Eli Wall from the University of Toronto held onto his top seed from prelims and demolished his morning swim’s time, dropping over 4 seconds tonight to win the men’s 200 breaststroke in a 2:11.17.  In 2nd place was David Riley of Western University and in 3rd Jonathan Ramkissoon of Waterloo.

1. GOLD: Eli Wall, University of Toronto, 2:11.17
2. SILVER: David Riley, Western University, 2:12.63
3. BRONZE: Jonathan Ramkissoon, Waterloo, 2:15.52

Women’s 200 Butterfly

Hannah Genich absolutely demolished the field in the women’s 200 butterfly, which she won with a brisk time of 2:11.09, which also took down the long-standing meet record of 2:11.35 set in 1999 by Jenn Button.  Finishing in 2nd place and over five seconds behind Genich was Rachel Nogard of Brock University, who touched in 2:16.53.  In third was Sophie Du Plessis of the University of Toronto.

1. GOLD: Hannah Genich, University of Toronto, 2:11.09
2. SILVER: Rachel Nogard, Brock University, 2:16.53
3. BRONZE: Sophie Du Plessis, University of Toronto, 2:17.05

Men’s 200 Butterfly

Ottowa’s Montana Champagne barely held off the 400 freestyle champion from earlier this evening Osvald Nitski to win the men’s 200 butterfly. Both men dipped under 1:59, though Champagne had the energy to finish strong and beat Nitski, who went out just slightly faster in the first 100.  Gamal Assaad of Western University claimed the bronze in a time of 2:00.12, shaving over 2 seconds off his morning swim.

1. GOLD: Montana Champagne, University of Ottowa, 1:58.30
2. SILVER: Osvald Nitski, University of Toronto, 1:58.43
3. BRONZE: Gamal Assaad, Western University, 2:00.12

Women’s 50 Freestyle

Rachel Rode, who has already picked up a gold medal by way of the 200 freestyle relay and a silver medal from the 100 back added another gold to her haul this evening with a win in the 50 freestyle.  Rode dropped an impressive 4-tenths of a second to win in 25.59, slipping past Charis Huddle of Western University, who picked up silver in 25.70.  Jessie MacLean from Brock University finished 3rd in 25.88.

1. GOLD: Rachel Rode, University of Toronto, 25.59
2. SILVER: Charis Huddle, Western University, 25.70
3. BRONZE: Jessie MacLean, Brock University, 25.88

Men’s 50 Freestyle

Cameron Kidd from the University of Toronto got the honors of fastest man in the pool tonight as he won the men’s 50 freestyle in a quick 22.19, finishing 1-tenth ahead of teammate Scott McGillivray.  In the first men’s event of the evening, Kidd and McGillivray helped their 200 freestyle relay to victory and a new championships record.  Now, they get to stand on the podium together for a 2nd time, and alongside bronze medalist Evan Van Moerkerke of the University of Guelph.

1. GOLD: Cameron Kidd, University of Toronto, 22.19
2. SILVER: Scott McGillivray, University of Toronto, 22.29
3. BRONZE: Evan Van Moerkerke, University of Guelph, 22.46

Women’s 800 Free Relay

The University of Toronto extended their dominance to a huge win in the final women’s race of the night, the 800 freestyle relay.  Toronto’s winning time of 8:18.73 was exactly 8 seconds faster than the silver-medal team from Western University, who finished in 8:26.73.  Claiming the bronze was Laurenthian University in 8:29.74.

1. GOLD: University of Toronto, 8:18.73 (Hodge, Radounski, McDonald, Saroukian)
2. SILVER: Western University, 8:26.73 (Brazeau, Hotta, Howard, Sawchuk)
3. BRONZE: Laurenthian University, 8:29.74 (Drescher, Deland, Konrad, Stanton)

Men’s 800 Free Relay

In similar fashion to the women, the men’s team from the University of Toronto dominated the field in the 800 freestyle relay tonight, picking up the gold in a time of 7:20.33.  Also, Western University once again claimed silver, about 7 seconds behind UT, finishing in 7:27.01.  Bronze went to the University of Guelph who finished in 7:27.29.  While the race for 2nd and 3rd place was close, 4th place (Waterloo) finished nearly 20 seconds back from Western and Guelph in 7:46.41, with the gap only widening from there.

1. GOLD: University of Toronto, 7:20.33 (Chaubet, Mac, Ryu, MacKinnon)
2. SILVER: Western University, 7:27.01 (Assaad, Paulins, Silverthorn, Riley)
3. BRONZE: University of Guelph, 7:27.29 (Vranic, Barros, Van Moerkerke, Zagar)