Varsity Blues Claim Seventh Straight Sweep At OUA Championships

2020 OUA Swimming Championships

• February 6-8, 2020
• Scarborough, Ontario
• Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre
• SCM (25m)
• Results

The University of Toronto Varsity Blues earned their seventh consecutive title sweep at the Ontario University Championships over the weekend in Scarborough, storming their way to a pair of decisive wins for the men and women.

MEN’S MEET

For the men, it was their 17th straight title, finishing with 992.5 points to clear runner-up Western (563.5) and third-place Waterloo (549.5) by well over 400.

They swept all five relays and had seven different men win individual events, including first-year Tyler Wall (100, 200 back), second-year Graeme Aylward (100, 200 breast) and fifth-year Osvald Nitski (100 fly, 200 IM) winning two apiece.

Winning OUA Male Swimmer of the Year was Western fourth-year Sebastian Paulins, who dominated by going four-for-four individually. Paulins broke a 14-year-old OUA record on the final night of action in the 1500 freestyle (15:21.66), and also walked away with titles in the 400 free, 400 IM and 200 fly.

Toronto’s Bernard Godolphin won the men’s 200 free, took second in the 400 free and fourth in the 100 free to earn OUA Male Rookie of the Year.

MEN’S TEAM SCORES

1. Toronto, 992.5
2. Western, 563.5
3. Waterloo, 549.5
4. McMaster, 519.0
5. Guelph, 295.0
6. Laurentian, 233.5
7. Brock, 221.0
8. Queens, 175.0
9. Carleton, 116.0
10. Wilfrid Laurier, 62.0
11. York, 53.0

WOMEN’S MEET

The U of T women won their seventh straight title with a total of 1,005.5 points, while McMaster (662) edged Western (661) by a single point for second.

Winning OUA Female Swimmer of the Meet was Varsity Blue Hannah Genich, who swept her individual events with victories in the 200 IM, and the 50, 100 and 200 fly. The fourth-year also swam on two of Toronto’s five winning relays.

Second-year Aleksa Gold (200 free, 100 back, 200 back) and fourth-year Rachel Rode (50 free, 50 back) also won multiple individual events for Toronto.

Two other standouts on the women’s side were first-years Megan Deering and Ella Rennie of Western. Deering won the women’s 50 and 100 breast, and Rennie, who won Female Rookie of the Year, won the 200 breast and 400 IM.

In that 200 breast, Rennie (2:29.20) defeated Wilfrid Laurier’s Jasmine Raines by just .08, narrowly denying Raines a shot at the career Grand Slam (four straight wins in the same event).

WOMEN’S TEAM SCORES

1. Toronto, 1005.5
2. McMaster, 662.0
3. Western, 661.0
4. Guelph, 339.0
5. Laurentian, 328.0
6. Waterloo, 307.0
7. Brock, 146.5
8. Queens, 138.0
9. Wilfrid Laurier, 91.0
10. Carleton, 64.0
11. York, 48.0

McMaster’s Grey Fairley and Laurentian’s Phil Parker were named Male and Female Team Coaches of the Year. The Marauder men maintained their fourth-place finish from 2019 while improving by 183 points, and the Voyageur women moved up one spot from last year to fifth while scoring 43 more points.