HIGH ACHIEVERS WEEKEND WRAP: Carleton Ravens shooting for more titles at U Sports women’s, men’s basketball championships

By Martin Cleary

For the first time in three years, the Carleton University basketball program will be chasing U Sports national championships this week in both the men’s and women’s tournaments.

The last time the two Ravens teams qualified for the opportunity to play in this country’s version of March Madness was in 2023. And Carleton made the most of it as the men’s squad needed double overtime to edge St. Francis Xavier University X-Men 109-104, while the women turned back Queen’s University Gaels 71-59.

Later this week, the Ravens men’s team will fly to Calgary and the Carleton women’s team will travel to Laval for their respective U Sports national basketball championships and they’ll be looking to repeat their ultimate performance of three years ago.

The seeding list indicates both Carleton teams are considered underdogs, but in a weekend tournament, where three wins equals a celebration, anything can happen on the court.

The men are seeded sixth and will face Université Laval Rouge et Or in a Friday quarterfinal at 4 p.m. EST, while the seventh-seeded women will take on the University of New Brunswick Reds in the opening quarterfinal Thursday at 12:30 p.m.

While the Carleton men’s team was absent from the national championship tournament the past two years, which saw the University of Victoria Vikes win in 2025 and Laval win in 2024, the Ravens women’s program has stood proud, winning the U Sports title in 2023 and 2024 and losing the 2025 final to the University of Saskatchewan Huskies.

Both Carleton teams qualified for their 2026 U Sports basketball nationals by advancing to the OUA championship finals Saturday on the road against the Toronto Metropolitan University Bold.

The Ravens suffered a double defeat to conclude their OUA season. The Bold presented a tight defence with a steady offence to win the women’s final 75-60 and its third Critelli Cup. Carleton only shot 30 per cent from the field, hitting 24 of 80 attempts.

In the men’s championship game, the OUA’s two best defensive teams produced a low-scoring game, which saw the Bold defeat the Ravens 66-56 for the Wilson Cup.

It was the first time in TMU history (which includes many years as Ryerson University) the men’s and women’s teams had won OUA basketball titles on the same day and in the same building, the Mattamy Athletic Centre.

Myriam Kone was the TMU leader with 22 points, nine rebounds, four steals and three blocked shots, while Catrina Garvey, a product of Ottawa’s Capital Courts Academy, connected for 15 points. Last week, Garvey was selected to the OUA’s third all-star team.

OUA all-rookie team player Tyanne Matosas-Adderley paced Carleton with 16 points, four rebounds and three assists against seven turnovers. Kyana-Jade Poulin, who was named to the OUA first all-star team, was held in check by the Bold with only eight points, nine rebounds and three assists.

Third-team all-star Jacqueline Urban had a double-double of 10 points and 14 rebounds along with a pair of assists and steals each. Abany Deng chipped in with 12 points and six rebounds.

The Ravens reached the OUA final by upsetting East Division champion Queen’s 61-54 in the semifinals. Poulin was more herself, scoring 21 points and adding six rebounds and four assists, while Catherine Oliver came off the bench for 13 points, four rebounds and two steals. Matosas-Adderley contributed 10 points, four steals, four rebounds and two assists.

The OUA all-star list also included Allie McCarthy, University of Ottawa Gee-Gees, second team; Bailey Russell, Gee-Gees, third team; and Bella Gaudet of Ottawa, Queen’s, third team.

Gaudet, who spent six years on the Gaels’ roster but only played 81 career games because of a variety of injuries and the COVID-19 pandemic, won the OUA Tracy MacLeod Award for her resiliency.

Gee-Gees guard Enora Touloute was named the winner of the Champion of EDI (Equity, Diversity, Inclusion) Award for her community involvement and introducing her teammates to Black-owned small businesses.

The Ravens will face the UNB Reds, who are led by pivotal captain Katie Butts of Ottawa. The former Capital Courts player combined for 24 points, 22 rebounds, five blocked shots and four assists as the Reds defeated St. Francis Xavier 72-52 in the semifinals and University of Prince Edward Island Panthers 84-59 in the Atlantic University Sports championship tournament final. Butts was selected the tournament MVP.

The Bold men’s team outscored the Ravens in each of the first three quarters to build a sizeable 51-39 lead entering the final quarter.

Two-time OUA player-of-the-year Aaron Rhooms sparked the Bold with 16 points, nine rebounds and four steals in the final home game of his OUA career.

Marjok Okado had a game-high 18 points, which featured four three-pointers, and three rebounds. Nelson Cilien, who was named the OUA’s defensive player of the year, had a team-high three steals and five defensive rebounds along with 11 points. Emmanuel Ngo Kana Suzamai subbed in and notched 10 rebounds, six points and four blocked shots.

The Ravens reached the OUA final by defeating the University of Toronto Varsity Blues 80-65 as Aubrey Dorey-Havens, an OUA first-team all-star, scored 19 points as well as collecting eight assists and six rebounds.

Louth Mohamed Coulibaly had 10 points, seven rebounds and two assists, while Ngo Kana Suzamai contributed 14 points, six rebounds and a pair of blocked shots. Emanuel Milon had a matching 14 points.

The OUA all-star list also included Brock Newton, Gee-Gees, second team; Owen Kenney, Gee-Gees, and Okado, both third team; and Justin Tounkara, Gee-Gees, rookie team.

Former Gee-Gees head coach Dave DeAveiro of TMU was named the coach of the year for the third time in the OUA. He earlier was a six-time RSEQ conference coach of the year.

The Gee-Gees women were knocked out of the first round of the OUA playoffs in a 77-50 loss to Western, while the uOttawa men fell to Brock by one point in the quarterfinals 69-68.

RAVENS SWEEP OUA NORDIC SKI CHAMPIONSHIPS

The Carleton Ravens enjoyed standout performances from their men’s and women’s teams at the OUA Nordic Ski Championships as well, sweeping both titles.

Competing nearby at Nakkertok Nordic from Feb. 20-22, the Ravens women won their fourth consecutive provincial title and ninth of the past 10, while Carleton ended a four-year men’s run by Lakehead.

The Ravens’ Nathaniel Sneyd won gold and bronze medals in the 9 km interval start free event and 15 km mass start classic, while Graeme Abbott earned silver and gold in those respective races. Carleton’s Helen McCulligh earned silver in both of those women’s events, with teammate Sophia Giangrande taking bronze in the 15 km mass start.

Bronwyn Williams of the uOttawa Gee-Gees was the women’s champion in both events, while the Gee-Gees’ Aidan Kirkham took bronze in 9 km and silver for 15 km.

In the relay, Carleton Ravens A (Kaeden Ward, Sneyd and Abbott) crossed the line at the same time as the Lakehead men, with Carleton B (Isaac Fortin, Seamus Williams and Noah Vanderzon) in third, while Carleton A (Giangrande, Beth Marchant and McCulligh) won the women’s gold, ahead of uOttawa (Erin Dunn, Maude Molgat and Williams) in second and Carleton B (Fiona McClure, Tessa Quinn-Crook and Maya Abraham) in third.

GEE-GEES ADVANCE TO OUA WOMEN’S HOCKEY SEMIFINALS

The University of Ottawa Gee-Gees women’s hockey season lives on, but the school’s defending U Sports national champion men’s team has closed the books on its 2025-26 campaign.

Beatrice Bilodeau scored back-to-back goals and T.J. Flores added an insurance marker all in the third period as the Gee-Gees rallied to defeat the University of Toronto Varsity Blues 3-1 and win the OUA women’s hockey quarterfinal series 2-1 on home ice.

After losing the opening game in Toronto 6-3, the Gee-Gees evened the best-of-three playoff series 1-1 with a 2-1 decision as Naomi Morin scored both goals. Alexa Pongo, Maelle Laplante and Flores scored in the first game.

Ottawa advances to the semifinals against the Wilfrid Laurier University Golden Hawks. The Gee-Gees will play host to the first game on Thursday. The remainder of the series will shift to Waterloo with games on Saturday and Sunday (if necessary).

The Gee-Gees men’s team lost its OUA quarterfinal in straight games 4-1 and 5-1 to the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières Patriotes. Mitch Martin scored for Ottawa in the first game and William Provost had the Gee-Gees’ lone goal in the second game.

SILVER MEDAL FOR CARLETON MEN AT UNIVERSITY CURLING CHAMPIONSHIPS

For the second straight year, the Carleton University Ravens men’s curling team has won the silver medal at the U Sports/Curling Canada university championships in Regina.

After winning the round-robin with a 6-1 record, the team of skip Owen Nicholls, third Jordan McNamara, second Jack Ragan, lead Jacob Clarke and alternate Philip Burgess defeated the University of Alberta Golden Bears 6-4 in the semifinals, but lost to the University of Calgary Dinos 7-6 in an extra end.

In the women’s national championship, Queen’s University Gaels skip Ava Acres of Winchester, ON and University of Guelph skip Katrina Frlan of Ottawa tied for fifth place with matching 3-4 records and missed the playoffs by one spot.

TWO RAVENS PLACE WELL AT U SPORTS WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIPS

The Carleton University Ravens had two athletes post top-five results at the U Sports wrestling championships in Thunder Bay.

Heaven-Lee Emond and Alecsandra Vlad finished in fifth place each with identical 3-2 records in the women’s 62-kilogram and women’s 76-kilogram class respectively.

Algoma University’s Lilah Fraser of Renfrew, ON was fourth in women’s 83 kg.

CARLETON’S JESSICA THEBARGE SWIMS TO OUA BRONZE MEDAL

Jessica Thebarge of the Carleton University Ravens won the bronze medal in the women’s 400-metre individual medley at the OUA swimming championships in Toronto.

Her result helped the Ravens women’s team finish eighth in the team standings, while the men were ninth.

The provincial championship also introduced the para category for swimmers with disabilities. Carleton swimmers Isabella Alma and Nicholas Scott were front and centre in their para races.

Alma won the women’s 50-metre freestyle in 49.40 seconds and the 100-metre breaststroke in 2:09.69. She also was second in the 100-metre backstroke in 2:03.95.

Scott posted second-place results in the men’s 100-metre backstroke in 1:18.83 seconds, the 100-metre breaststroke in 1:33.99, and the 100-metre butterfly in 1:10.08. He also was third in the 100-metre freestyle in 1:09.07.

At the RSEQ swimming championships, the McGill University Redbirds swept the men’s, women’s and overall team titles. The University of Ottawa Gee-Gees were second in all three categories.

WILLIAM SANDERS, LUCA NICOLETTI WIN MULTIPLE RSEQ TRACK MEDALS

McGill University Redbirds’ William Sanders and Luca Nicoletti earned three and two medals respectively, including sharing gold in a relay, at the RSEQ track and field championships in Montreal.

Sanders anchored the winning men’s 4×400-metre relay team, after Nicoletti ran the opening leg. The McGill team finished in 3:16.02. Sanders also captured the 300 metres in 34.03 seconds and was third over 600 metres in 1:19.82.

Nicoletti narrowly missed gold in the men’s 300 metres, finishing in 34.08 seconds or 0.05 seconds behind Sanders.

Rose Basu of the Carleton University Ravens was a double bronze medallist at the RSEQ conference finals.

Besides sprinting to a third-place showing in the women’s 60-metre final in a personal-best 7.56 seconds, Basu also joined teammates Kierra McGillivray, Michaella Appiah-Kubi and Christine Ani-Asamani for the same result in the women’s 4×200-metre relay.

Cole Simard of the Ravens was fifth in the men’s 60-metre final in a best-ever 6.96 seconds.

The Carleton women’s team placed fifth overall, while the men were seventh.

KATE MILLER WINS FIRST INTERNATIONAL DIVING MEDAL WITH PARTNER KATELYN FUNG

Ottawa’s Kate Miller earned her first international podium finish with teammate Katelyn Fung in the women’s 10-metre synchronized event at the Diving World Cup in Montreal.

Earning their best scores in their final two dives, Miller and Fung leaped ahead of Australia with a total of 296.94 points to 293.22 to win the bronze medal.

“Last year was the first time we dove as a team, so it’s incredible for us to have won a medal in our second year together,” Miller, who came up from the University of Southern California for the event, said via Diving Canada.

Miller, a Paris 2024 Olympian, also placed seventh in her individual women’s 10 m event.

VANESSA GILLES SCORES OPENING GOAL IN TEAM CANADA SOCCER WIN

Ottawa’s Vanessa Gilles broke Team Canada’s 485-minute scoreless drought with a header goal off a corner kick as the Canadian women’s soccer team opened the March 1-7 SheBelieves Cup in Nashville with a 4-1 victory over Colombia.

Northern Super League scoring champion D.B. Pridham of the Ottawa Rapid earned her first cap for Team Canada in the contest.

Ottawa’s Annabelle Chukwu did not appear in the match but is with the team and could be called upon for matches against USA (Wednesday) or Argentina (Saturday).

DOMINIQUE VIVIER RINK CAPTURES ONTARIO WOMEN’S U20 CURLING TITLE

The Ontario women’s U20 curling championship playoffs were all about Ottawa-based rinks and the top two teams will advance to the Canadian championships in Sudbury at the end of the month.

RCMP Curling Club’s Dominique Vivier, Ava Acres, Riley Puhl and Mya Sharpe stole seven points in the first three ends and went on to defeat Rideau Curling Club’s Charlotte Wilson, Amelia Benning, Abby Rushton and Sydney Anderson 10-4 in the final.

Vivier counted two points in the first end, four in the second and one in the third without the hammer to charge to a 7-0 advantage. Wilson, the Ontario U18 and Ontario Winter Games champion, responded with three in the fourth end and stole one in the fifth. But Vivier ended the match early with one in the sixth and two in the seventh.

In the only semifinal, Vivier defeated Huntley Curling Club’s Katrina Frlan, Erika Wainwright, Samantha Wall and Lauren Norman 5-3. With the game deadlocked 1-1 after three ends, Vivier scored two in the fourth and stole singles in the fifth and sixth ends. Frlan counted two in the seventh end before both sides shook hands.

Wilson finished first in the round-robin at 6-1, while Vivier and Frlan had matching 5-2 records for second place.

In the Ontario U20 boys’ championship, the North Grenville Curling Club rink of Owen MacTavish, Cameron Wright, Jacob Pierunke and Remy Pietrangelo lost a tiebreaker to Tyler MacTavish of the K-W Granite Club 8-6.

Benning finished in a four-way tie for second place with four wins and three losses.

At the recent Canadian U18 curling championships in Regina, Wilson, playing as Ontario No. 1 rink, lost 8-3 to Saskatchewan’s Renee Woods of the Sutherland Curling Club.

Wilson’s rink won two of its first four matches before capturing five consecutive games to charge into the gold-medal match. The Rideau Curling Club team was second in Pool C at 4-2.

SCHMIDT SIBLINGS CLOSE TO WORLD CUP SKI CROSS MEDALS

Siblings Hannah and Jared Schmidt of Dunrobin, ON, are back on track following disappointing results at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games.

Hannah posted her best back-to-back results of the FIS World Cup ski cross season with a fourth- and a fifth-place finish in two races at Kopaonik, Serbia. Her fourth came in the big final, which she qualified for as the runner-up in both her semi-final and quarter-final races.

On the same day Hannah won the small final for her fifth-place result, Jared did the same in the men’s consolation final for his fifth-place showing. In his first race, Jared was 19th and eliminated in the round of 16.

Valérie Grenier of St. Isidore, ON, had a pair of 20th-place results in two super-G alpine ski races in Soldeu, Andorra.

ANTOINE CYR CRACKS WORLD CUP TOP-10 IN SKIATHLON

Skinouk’s Antoine Cyr of Gatineau recorded his best World Cup result of the season, when he was 10th in the men’s 20-kilometre skiathlon in Falun, Sweden.

He completed the classic/free technique race in 49 minutes, 34.2 seconds and was 57.4 seconds behind Norway’s Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, who posted his 12th win in his last 12 World Cup or Olympic races. Klaebo stopped in 48:41.8.

Nakkertok Nordic’s Katherine Stewart-Jones of Chelsea didn’t race the women’s 20-kilometre skiathlon.

NCSSAA SKIERS EARN FOUR GOLD MEDALS AT OFSAA NORDIC CHAMPIONSHIPS

National Capital Secondary School Athletic Association athletes won three of the eight individual races at the OFSAA nordic ski championships in Orillia.

Laila Lebel of Colonel By and Madeleine Beauregard of Glebe were the respective senior girls’ open division and senior girls’ high school division champions. Louis-Riel’s Evan Rebane was the senior boys’ open division winner.

Charlotte Honeywell-Dobbin, Annabel Quon, Lola Wise, Gabriella Bereznai and Elizabeth Holtzman gave Glebe the gold medal in the junior girls’ team sprints.

Glebe also was second in the senior boys’ team sprints and third in the senior girls’ final. Nepean placed third in the senior boys’ eight-team final.

ASHBURY, LOUIS-RIEL COMBINE FOR 11 MEDALS AT OFSAA ALPINE CHAMPIONSHIPS

The Louis-Riel Rebelles earned two team gold and one individual bronze medals in the girls’ open division at the OFSAA alpine ski championships in Collingwood.

Lilia Jakobiec, Chloe Brouillard, Lea Brunet, Natalya Girouard and Zara Bessette finished first in the giant slalom and slalom team standings. Brouillard collected a bronze medal in the giant slalom and also was sixth in the slalom.

Ashbury was third in the girls’ open slalom team standings.

In the open boys’ team competition, Ashbury was second in giant slalom and third in slalom. George Dawe led the Colts with a silver medal in the giant slalom and a ninth in the slalom.

Niko Johnson rebounded from a no-finish slalom to a silver medal in the high school boys’ division giant slalom, which was a key result in Ashbury winning second place in the team category. Teammate Laurier Sullivan was third in the slalom.

Ashbury placed three skiers in the top-20 to win the gold medal in the high school girls’ division slalom. The members of the Colts team were Sophie Boyce, Uliana Pavlova, Carlie Wyse, Lucy Wilson and Ella Markel.