HIGH ACHIEVERS: uOttawa Gee-Gees give powerful performance at RSEQ swimming championships

By Martin Cleary

WEEKEND WRAP: One by one, the university sports championships are starting to reappear for the student/athletes, who have dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic, venue shutdowns and cancelled or altered seasons.

Swimming was the next sport to make its return and the RSEQ provincial championships at the University of Ottawa’s Montpetit Hall pool was a time of true excitement and great expectations.

“The whole RSEQ league was ecstatic to get back to championship racing again and it showed,” Ottawa Gee-Gees’ head coach Dave Heinbuch responded in an email interview.

“We were able to do one warm-up competition in a dual meet with Carleton (University) on Feb. 22, which made a huge difference for the confidence of the team heading into the RSEQ championships.”

In its third year in RSEQ swimming, the Gee-Gees were impressive throughout the championships, placing second in the men’s, women’s and combined standings behind front-running McGill University. The Gee-Gees combined for 38 men’s and women’s medals (seven gold, 14 silver and 17 bronze) and 18 swimmers qualified for the Canadian university championships March 24-26 at Université Laval.

Heinbuch had high praise for his team, which couldn’t train in the pool from Dec. 15 to Jan. 21 because of the pandemic. Twenty-three Gee-Gees swimmers were on a Swim Ontario exempt list as Swimming Canada trials qualifiers and were able to return to pool training on Jan. 21, while the other 27 swimmers waited until Feb. 1.

“That was easily the best performance for our team in the RSEQ Conference,” he added. “Most satisfying for the coaching staff was how close we came to McGill in the scoring race. They are a great team and we pushed them.”

McGill won the women’s team aggregate with 872 points, while the Gee-Gees were second at 762. On the men’s side, McGill earned 899 points to 762 for Ottawa.

Nathan Schiffmann won the opening individual race of the provincial championships, when he captured the men’s 1,500 metres in 15 minutes, 39.79 seconds and was third in the 400 metres at 3:55.63. He also had a second and a third in team relays.

Breaststroke swimmer Hugo Lemesle won the 200-metre race in 2:14.27 and was second over 100 metres in 1:01.27 and 50 metres in 28.11. Will Barrett was Lemesle’s chief rival in the breaststroke race as he won the 100-metre race in 1:00.57, and was third over 200 metres in 2:16.09 and 50 metres in 28.36.

Brendan Van Herk was the 400-metre individual medley champion in 4:23.18. Ryan Jensen, Lemesle, Alexandre Perreault and Allen Zheng placed first in the 400-metre medley relay in 3:40.60. Perreault had a team-high five medals along with Lemesle. He was runner-up in the 50-metre butterfly in 24.18 and the 100-metre butterfly in 52.41, which were both team records, as well as having one gold and two silvers in various relays.

The Gee-Gees women’s team opened the Saturday afternoon finals with a pair of gold-medal performances.

Adelle Yamashita-Ball was first in the 400-metre freestyle in 4:19.52, and Lauren Shearer followed with a victory in the 200-metre breaststroke in 2:32.55.

Yamashita-Ball also was second in the 200-metre freestyle in 2:03.90 and had a second and a third in the relays. Shearer also was strong in her other breaststroke races, placing second over 50 metres in 32.76, and third over 100 metres in 1:11.50, and added a pair of third-place relay results.

After helping the Gee-Gees score points with two third-place relay finishes, Abby McKinley added thirds in the 100-metre butterfly in 1:02.99 and the 200-metre backstroke in 2:16.39.

KINGFISH SWIMMERS SHOW WELL AGAINST OLYMPIC MEDALLISTS

Greater Ottawa Kingfish swimmers Ashley McMillan and Regan Rathwell gave themselves the ultimate test at the 2022 Trials Selection Prep Invite meet in Toronto, racing against four-time Olympic medallist Kylie Masse.

Masse won the women’s 100-metre backstroke in 59.25, while McMillan was second in 1:00.00 and Rathwell took third in 1:00.16. In the 50-metre backstroke, Rathwell was second in 28.87, while Masse placed first in 27.52.

McMillan and Rathwell also competed against Olympic medallist and seven-time world championship medal winner Sydney Pickrem in the 100-metre breaststroke. Pickrem won the race in 1:08.97, while McMillan was second in 1:10.58 and Rathwell took fourth in 1:11.19. McMillan also was second in the 100-metre butterfly.

GO’s Danika Ethier was third in the 100- and 200-metre breaststroke races in 1:10.86 and 2:39.26 respectively. Steven Lett of GO won the men’s 50-metre breaststroke in 27.35, Olivier Risk of ROCS took third in the men’s 400-metre individual medley in 4:44.16, and Grace Lu of the Ottawa Y Olympians was second in the women’s 50-metre breaststroke in 33.67.

DESCHENES RINK UNDEFEATED AT U21 ONTARIO CHAMPIONSHIP, ADVANCES TO NATIONALS

Rideau Curling Club’s Emily Deschenes won four consecutive games to capture the Ontario U21 women’s curling championship in Waterloo.

Deschenes and her rink of Evelyn Robert, Grace Lloyd and Emma Artichuk will represent Ontario at the 2022 New Holland Canadian U21 championship March 25 to April 1 in Stratford, Ont.

In the triple-knockout competition, Deschenes captured the A flight with wins over Ella Dobson of London, 9-5, Tori Zemmelink of Guelph, 7-3, and Dominique Vivier of Navan, 7-2, to advance to the final. Deschenes scored single points in the seventh, eighth and 10th ends to defeat Vivier 5-3 in their second straight match.

Ottawa and area also was represented by Emma Acres of RCMP, Alix Giles of Winchester and Jenny Madden of Manotick, who all went 0-3.

On the men’s side, Kibo Mulima of RCMP dropped his first two games, but won his next two before losing the C-side bracket final 8-6 to Christopher Inglis of Peterborough. Sean Blyth of the Ottawa Hunt conceded all three of his matches.