The short course meters OUA Championships in St. Catharines Ontario kicked off today with some fast swimmers and a total domination by those representing the University of Toronto. The Varsity Blues came home with a total of nine new OUA records on night one of the OUA Champs, medalling in every single event.
The Varsity Blues women started off the meet with a win in the 200m freestyle relay. Paige Shultz, swimming the anchor leg, touched in at 1:43.83 to beat the previous mark of 1:44.86 set by the Western Mustangs in 2012. The Mustangs finished second behind the Varsity Blues tonight in 1:43.99. They were ahead of the Varsity Blues heading into the final 50, but Western’s anchor Hayley Hess couldn’t hold off Shultz who finished with the fastest split of the night in 25.39.
Shultz went on to win the gold in the 50m freestyle as well, thus adding her impressive total up to two golds and two OUA records. Shultz grabbed the gold in 25.52 to break the record of 25.66 set by Western Mustang Haley Nell in 2012.
The men stepped up as well by also smashing the 200m freestyle relay record; touching the wall in 1:30.83 to beat Western’s 10 year old mark of 1:31.90 from 2004. Again the Mustangs had to settle for silver, this time finishing a little farther behind in 1:32.78. Olympian Chris Manning swam the anchor leg in 22.01, posting the fastest split of the night. Matthew Myers who swam third took home the second fastest split of the night, finishing in 22.39.
Chris Manning followed in Paige Shultz’ footsteps by also adding a gold in the 50m freestyle to add to his impressive anchor leg and relay win. Manning touched the wall in a new OUA record of 22.44 to break the longstanding record of 22.84 set by the University of Toronto’s Terrance Haynes back in 2008. Evan Van Moerkerke was also under Haynes’ mark, grabbing the silver in 22.76.
In the men’s 400m freestyle University of Toronto’s Frank Despond responded to the two relay victories by grabbing the first individual gold for the men’s team. Despond touched the wall in 3:47.90 to break his own record of 3:48.63 which he set back in 2012. Teammate and World Championship team member Zach Chetrat finished behind Despond in 3:52.38. Chetrat has put a lot more of a focus on distance and middle-distance freestyle events this year than ever before.
Bridget Coley won the women’s version of the event in 4:12.35, taking down Western Mustang Emma Sproule who finished nine-tenths behind in 4:13.25.
Emily Anzai won the gold in the women’s 100m backstroke in a time of 1:02.51 swimming for the Guelph Gryphons. Anzai took down University of Ottawa swimmer Neely Arnott (1:03.26) and Varsity Blue swimmer Margot Cunningham (1:03.60) to win.
The men’s 100m backstroke brought the gold back to the University of Toronto team with a win by Matthew Myers. Myers, competing with UofT for his third year put down a time of 54.70 to beat out two University of Ottawa swimmers: Adam Best and Robert Bonomo. This gave Myers his second gold of the meet, adding to the gold he already won in the record setting 200m freestyle relay.
Vanessa Treasure from the University of Toronto took down her own mark of 2:29.90 in the 200m breaststroke with a fast time of 2:8.99 to win the gold. Amazingly, Treasure set the new record this morning during the prelims session and matched the exact same time in finals.With that performance Treasure earned her third straight title in the event, showing her dominance in breaststroke. Treasure is now ranked fifth in the current Canadian University rankings with that time.
In the men’s 200m breaststroke David Riley won yet another gold for the Varsity Blues en route to a 2:14.93 finish. Riley had to hold off all advances from McMaster’s Konrad Bald to win the gold. Bald finished in 2:15.20, but came home with the fastest final 50m of the night with a split of 34.44.
Alisha Harricharan brought home a second gold for the Guelph Gryphons tonight with her win in the 200m fly. Harricharan touched the wall in 2:14.05 ahead of Western Mustang Shannon Nell’s 2:14.41. Rachel Nogard of the University of Brock Badgers (the host school) picked up the bronze in 2:15.02.
The 200m fly was all about World Championship team member Zach Chetrat. Chetrat obliterated his competition tonight, smashing his own OUA record of 1:59.25 with an incredible 1:56.52. His outstanding swim landed him almost three seconds ahead of second place finisher Ben Stubbs who swam a 1:59.60 to pickup the silver. The fast time posted by Chetrat almost matched his 1:55.67 from the Canada Cup which is currently the top ranked time in Canada this season. Chetrat’s swim gave him his fifth consecutive win in this event at the OUA championships, Chetrat looks as though he’s in great shape heading into the CIS Champs.
The University of Toronto Women continued their rein of terror on the record books with a huge win in the 800m freestyle relay. The relay which contained two members of the record setting 200m freestyle relay (Jennifer Tapley and Paige Shultz) dominated the competition by smashing Western’s mark of 8:13.47 with a time of 8:08.60. Western was also under that mark with a time of 8:11.95. The two teams were almost at the 600m mark but Shultz stepped up and again threw down an amazing anchor leg to secure the win. That win gave Shultz three golds and three OUA records; her teammate Vanessa Treasure earned herself her second gold and OUA record of the meet.
The men stepped up to the women’s performance by absolutely destroying the OUA record in the 800m freestyle relay. The team that contained three gold medal winners from today: Frank Despond, David Riley, and Zach Chetrat (including Kent Kikot who did not win a gold) threw down 7:19.59 to win the event. No team was within five seconds of the Varsity Blues.
With the final win, the University of Toronto team clearly took the cake on day one with 12 golds (including nine OUA records), 1 silver, and four bronze medals. The University of Western Mustangs also look good heading into day two of the OUA Champs.
For full meet results click here.
