By Martin Cleary
April has been an exciting month for the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees swimming program.
And the men’s and women’s squads, which both finished sixth in the team standings at the 2026 U Sports national championships, didn’t have a single practice or competition.
On Monday, Vincenzo Sljuka was officially promoted to the Gee-Gees swimming head coach position from interim head coach status, after a successful 2025-26 season.
During the annual Gee-Gees awards ceremony April 14 at the National Arts Centre, Alym Kurji was named the men’s varsity athlete of the year, while teammate Nicholas Radjenovic was the men’s varsity rookie of the year.
“It’s a true honour to be named head coach of the swimming program,” Slujka said in a Gee-Gees media release. “I’m excited to continue building a positive, team-driven environment, where every athlete can grow and thrive both in and out of the pool.”
Slujka replaced Dave Heinbuch, who retired following the 2024-25 season, which completed his 12th year as the Gee-Gees’ head coach. During that time, Heinbuch, who competed for Canada in the men’s 200-metre breaststroke at the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics, saw his swimmers win 240 RSEQ conference and 40 U Sports medals.
For the past decade, the University of Ottawa has been the centre of Sljuka’s life. He was named associate head coach in 2023 and was an assistant coach and recruiting co-ordinator starting in 2021. He also was the co-ordinator for the Gee-Gees’ swim camps in 2019.
As a student-athlete, Sljuka earned his honours bachelor degree in human kinetics between 2016-21 and his masters degree in human kinetics with a concentration in intervention and consultation in 2021-22. He was co-captain of the men’s 2020-21 swim team and named to the Dean’s List in 2020.
“Our philosophy is focused on helping our swimmers reach their full potential through daily habits, shared commitment and a collective pursuit of excellence,” he added. “Through this approach, we believe we will be highly competitive on the national stage.”
At his first U Sports national swimming championships as the interim head coach, Sljuka guided his athletes to sixth-place finishes in the men’s and women’s team standings earlier this year. That result matched the best-ever showing for the women’s team, which also was sixth in 2019-20.
The men’s and women’s teams also placed second at the RSEQ championships behind the McGill University Redbirds/Martlets.
The Gee-Gees qualified 24 swimmers for the U Sports nationals, which saw Kurji earn the bronze medal in the men’s 50-metre butterfly in 23.55 seconds and Abigail McKinley capture the women’s 200-metre backstroke bronze in 2:09.59.
Danika Smith, the Gee-Gees’ associate director, varsity sports for uOttawa Recreation and Varsity Sports, was thrilled to welcome Sljuka as head coach.
“Vince has been a strong advocate for his student-athletes, elevating both support and resources, and his commitment to a safe, supportive, high-performance culture will drive continued success,” she said. “I’m excited to work alongside him as we build on this momentum.
“After an incredibly successful season, it’s clear he’s the right leader to take this team to the next level.”
Kurji, a third-year finance-marketing student from Ajax, ON, won five gold medals at the RSEQ championships, which was a key contributor to him winning the men’s varsity athlete-of-the-year award. At the conference finals, he won the gold medal in the 50- and 100-metre freestyle, 50- and 100-metre butterfly and the men’s 4×50-metre freestyle relay as well as a silver medal in the 4×100-metre freestyle relay.
At the 2026 U Sports nationals, he also was fourth in the 100-metre freestyle at 48.58 seconds, which was a quarter of a second from the bronze podium step, and seventh in the 50-metre freestyle at 22.38 seconds, a half second from the bronze.
In his three years with the Gee-Gees, he has captured seven gold, five silver and one bronze medals at the conference championships. He also has five team records, including the short-course 50-metre backstroke at 24.84 seconds from 2024.
Nicholas Radjenovic made an impressive debut at the RSEQ championships, which allowed him to win the men’s varsity rookie-of-the-year award.
The management student from Toronto was a four-time conference medallist and a double-record setter. He won the men’s 50-metre backstroke in a team record 24.22 seconds and had second-place results in the 100-metre backstroke in 53.86 seconds and the 50- and 100-metre medley relays.
At the U Sports nationals, he was sixth in the 50-metre backstroke and the 4×100-metre medley relay, where the Gee-Gees swam a team record time. He also was ninth in the 100-metre backstroke.
Meanwhile, Audrey Odigie, a fourth-year finance student from Brampton, ON, was selected the women’s varsity athlete of the year for her richly rewarded volleyball season.
An outside hitter, Odigie was selected an OUA first-team all-star and a second team All-Canadian. She ranked fourth in Canada in both kills (3.95) and points per set (4.7). By serving 34 aces, she was fourth in the OUA and 11th nationally.
It was the first time since 2013-14 a Gee-Gees player had been granted All-Canadian status and the 10th in program history.
Odigie also broke the single-season Gee-Gees records in total kills (300) and points scored (359.5), while sparking her team to an 11-10 OUA season and a berth in the quarterfinals, which marked her first career university playoff experience.
After four seasons, she is in third place for career points scored at 1,158 and kills at 979 for the Gee-Gees.
Hockey player Beatrice Bilodeau was a double winner at the year-end ceremony, receiving the President’s Award and the Garnet and Grey Community Engagement Award.
She earned the President’s Award for her on-ice performance, which saw her record a personal-best seven goals and seven assists in the regular season and another three goals in the OUA playoffs. She played a key role in the Gee-Gees winning the OUA playoff silver medal and a berth in the U Sports national women’s hockey championship tournament. Bilodeau has been team captain the past two seasons, when she has been in medical school.
Off the ice, U Sports presented Bilodeau with the Marion Hilliard Award for best combining athletics, academics, leadership and citizenship. She was recognized for “encouraging sport participation and physical activity for all, uplifting students in rural communities and assisting seniors in long-term care,” according to the media release.
Football running back Charles Asselin of Ottawa was the recipient of the men’s President’s Award. He totalled the most all-purpose yards of any U Sports football player in the 2025 season at 1,296 yards – 593 yards for kickoff returns, 444 yards rushing, 237 yards receiving and 22 yards punt returns.
He ranked third in the U Sports stats column for total kick return yards and sixth in the OUA in rushing yardage. Asselin, who had a 9.44 grade-point average, is 10th in team history for career rushing yards at 1,330.
Rugby’s Grace Dingwall of Ottawa was selected the women’s varsity rookie of the year as she ranked eighth (tie) among try scorers with 10 in the nation, was a second-team All-Canadian and contributed to the Gee-Gees winning the RSEQ silver medal.
She also competed for Ontario at the 2025 Canada Summer Games and the Global Youth 7s competition.
The other major award winners were:
· Varsity Garnet women’s athlete of the year – Bronwyn Williams, nordic skiing;
· Varsity Garnet men’s athlete of the year – Safwan El Mansari, track and field;
· Varsity Grey women’s athlete of the year – Ela Day-Bedard, softball;
· Varsity Grey men’s athlete of the year – Alex Lungu, tennis;
· Varsity Garnet women’s President’s Award – Maja Mooers, nordic skiing;
· Varsity Garnet men’s President’s Award – William Harris, track and field;
· Varsity Grey women’s President’s Award – Kaitlyn Flear, softball;
· Varsity Grey men’s President’s Award – James Humber, volleyball;
· Varsity Garnet women’s rookie of the year – Sophia McIntyre, track and field;
· Varsity Garnet men’s rookie of the year – Nate Phillips, rugby;
· Varsity Grey women’s rookie of the year – Sofia Morello, ringette;
· Varsity Grey men’s rookie of the year – Marko Mysyk, volleyball;
· Leadership and Initiative Award – Keiran Martini-Wong, baseball;
· True Sport Culture Builder Award – Enora Touloute, women’s basketball; Curtis Bourgeois, baseball; Nibo Dlamini, women’s soccer;
· Career Achievement Award – Brock Newton, men’s basketball; Ngozi Mosindi, women’s rugby; Franky Lapenna, men’s hockey; Sacha Vasiliev, men’s fencing; Marieve Vandervoort, ringette.
The team MVP awards were presented to:
· Alpine skiing – Sara Buzdugan;
· Artistic swimming – Lauren El-Awadi;
· Badminton – Mithilesh Ramdany, Ashley Ng;
· Baseball – Noah Harnish;
· Basketball – Brock Newton, Allie McCarthy;
· Cheerleading – Zara Takach;
· Cross-country running – Zach Sikka, Zoe Gardiner;
· Dance – Allisun Yu;
· Equestrian – Victor Lin;
· Football – Josh Janssen;
· Fencing – Edward Yang, Maryam Moussa;
· Golf – Angelina Cattelan;
· Hockey – Peter Stratis, Gillian Warren;
· Lacrosse – John McKinney;
· Nordic skiing – Cohen Norman, Erin Dunn;
· Ringette – Rhian Dentelbeck;
· Rowing – Kyle Lamprecht, Rebecca Cocchetto;
· Rugby – Ben Holahan, Ava Johnston;
· Soccer – Mansour Thioune, Sabrina Mangiaracina;
· Softball – Annika Pocock;
· Squash – Jonathan Whelan, Shaylin Kryvenchuk-Bolanos;
· Swimming – Alym Kurji, Abigail McKinley;
· Tennis – Alex Lungu, Sophia Dimitrova;
· Track and field – Safwan El Mansari, Jessica Gyamfi;
· Ultimate – Maxime Ayad, Chloe Rosenbloom;
· Volleyball – Zachary Shewan, Audrey Odigie;
· Water polo – Alex Goriani, Samantha Zabchuk.
Martin Cleary has written about amateur sports for over 52 years. A past Canadian sportswriter of the year and Ottawa Sports Awards Lifetime Achievement in Sport Media honouree, Martin retired from full-time work at the Ottawa Citizen in 2012, but continued to write a bi-weekly “High Achievers” column for the Citizen/Sun.
When the pandemic struck, Martin created the High Achievers “Stay-Safe Edition” to provide some positive news during tough times, via his Twitter account at first and now here at OttawaSportsPages.ca.
Martin can be reached by e-mail at martincleary51@gmail.com and on Twitter @martincleary.