OUA Swimming Championships
- Markham, ON
- February 7-9, 2025
- SCM (Short Course Meters)
- Results Available on Meet Mobile: “Ontario University Championships 2025
The Ontario University Athletics Swimming Championships are officially underway and Day 1 of the meet has already seen numerous OUA records fall, and multi-time winner Toronto finished out the day on top.
Day 1 Event Winners:
- Women’s 200 Free Relay: University of Toronto- 1:42.77
- Men’s 200 Free Relay: University of Toronto- 1:29.41
- Women’s 200 Free: Katie Marovino (UT)- 2:00.93
- Men’s 200 Free: Kieran Stone (WES)- 1:47.66
- Women’s 100 Breast: Tina Guan (UT)- 1:10.80
- Para 100 Breast: Isabella Alma (CAR)- 2:09.26
- Men’s 100 Breast: Camren Courchene-Carter (BADGR)- 1:00.68
- Para 100 Breast: Zach El-Sayed (BADGR)- 1:21.99
- Para 100 Breast: Charlie Giammichele (MACU)- 1:22.48
- Women’s 100 Fly: Hannah Gallagher (WAT)- 1:00.41
- Men’s 100 Fly: Benjamin Loewen (UT)- 52.41
- Para 100 Fly: Nicholas Scott (CAR)- 1:16.72
- Women’s 50 Back: Tatum O’Connor (BADGR)- 27.87
- Men’s 50 Back: Ben Winterborn (UT)- 24.79
- Women’s 400 IM: Nina Mollin (UT)- 4:44.60
- Men’s 400 IM: Jacob Gallant (UT)- 4:14.16
- Women’s 400 Medley Relay: University of Toronto- 4:12.83
- Men’s 400 Medley Relay: University of Toronto- 3:36.39
Overall, there were seven OUA records set yesterday, but two of them stood for only a few hours.
In the prelims, York University’s Eric Ginzburg broke his own 100 fly record, swimming the event in 52.57 which was 0.17 off the 52.74 he went at last year’s championships. His new record didn’t last long, however, as Toronto 3rd year Benjamin Loewen went 0.16 faster to win the event in finals, setting the new record at 52.41. Ginzburg, who is also a 3rd year, went 52.59 in the final.
The same thing happened in the men’s 50 backstroke. Toronto 3rd year Andrew Herman went 24.86 in the 50 backstroke prelims to also break his own record of 24.98. In the finals, 1st year Ben Winterborn went 24.79 to break the hours old record set by his teammate. Herman also went under his record, swimming 24.83 for 2nd.
The other record breakers were also men’s swimmers. The University of Toronto broke both relay records, starting with the 200 freestyle relay, where they went 1:29.41 to break their 2020 record of 1:29.67. The team of Misha Bagrianksi (23.63), Andrew Herman (22.17), Albert Bouley (21.81), Liam Weaver (21.80) beat the 2nd place Waterloo ‘A’ team’s time of 1:32.80.
They also finished the meet with a record, swimming 3:36.39 in the 400 medley relay. Carter Buck (54.36), Nathan Thomas (1:00.59), Benjamin Loewen (51.98), and Ben Winterborn (49.46) broke the previous record of 3:38.31 set by Toronto back in 2017.
Finally, S7 Paralympic swimmer, Charlie Giammichele set a new Para Americas Record in the men’s 100 breaststroke, where he went 1:22.48. This breaks the 1:25.86 record set by Rudy Garcia-Tolson in December of 2007.
Team Scores After Day 1:
Women
- Toronto- 289
- Western- 231
- McMaster- 193
- Waterloo- 159.5
- Guelph- 148.5
- Brock- 109
- Laurier- 69
- Queens- 48
- Carleton- 36
- York University- 28
Men
- Toronto- 336.5
- Western- 192.5
- Waterloo- 172.5
- McMaster- 170.5
- Wilfrid Laureir- 111
- Brock University- 100.5
- York University- 73
- Carleton University- 56
- University of Guelph- 55
- Queens- 43.5
Canada lacks 50 meter pools.The vast majority of Canadian age groupers train in 25 meter pools and are starving for 50 meter training.So any chance of doing a meet or some training in a 50 meter pool is very valuable.It drives me crazy to tune into a meet like this and see the swimmers racing 25 meters in a perfectly good 50 meter pool.Canadian universities provide almost zero swimmers for the national program.Decisions like cutting a 50 meter pool in half are part of the reason for this…Confused as to why they do this.It,s February,SC season is over.