The University of Toronto Varsity Blues will look to defend their titles as the top fencers from around Ontario University Athletics (OUA) converge on Carleton University this weekend (Feb. 13-14) for the 2010 OUA fencing championships.
The Blues are the defending men’s and women’s champions after hosting in 2009 and have qualified student-athletes in all six disciplines for this event. Toronto is also the defending champions in women’s foil, epee and sabre as well as men’s foil.
Individually, Varsity Blues Joanne Ko (Toronto) and Amber Wavryk (Scarborough, Ont.) won all five bouts in women's epee at the OUA West qualifier and will be joined by teammate Julia Barrette (Montreal) at Carleton. Their closest competitors will be a strong Carleton Ravens team of Rachael Gardner (Ottawa), Gillian Turnbull (Winnipeg) and Mozynah Nofal (Ottawa). Gardner ranks No. 1 out of the OUA East qualifier, while Ko was the 2009 recipient of the Dave O'Donnell Trophy as women’s epee individual champion.
The Ravens will also have great representation in women’s foil, with Kelleigh Ryan (Ottawa) and Jennifer Dunev (Ottawa) toping the rankings in the OUA East. They will have to contend with Salomeh Ahmadi (Etobicoke, Ont.) of the Western Mustangs who went undefeated in her five bouts at the West qualifier. The Varsity Blues duo of Jodi Marr (Wainfleet, Ont.) and Nicole See-Too (Edmonton) will look to return the women’s foil trophy back to Toronto.
The Varsity Blues will also send a strong contingent of student-athletes competing in women’s sabre including Kelly Alison Doyle (Troy, N.Y.), Kristina Han (Burlington, Ont.), Stefania Spano (Thornhill, Ont.) and JoJo Leung (Winterton, Nfld.). Adrienne Sukunda (Gloucester, Ont.) and Katrina Ross (Winchester, Ont.) of the Ravens and Sarah Rogers (Yarmouth, N.S.) of the RMC Paladins will be their toughest adversaries.
Kyle Chan (Hong Kong), Kamil Karbonowski (Milton, Ont.) and David Schacter (Montreal) are ranked 1-2-3 coming out of the OUA West qualifier as they look to defend the men’s foil title for the Varsity Blues. Michael Dubois-Boudazza (Ottawa) of the Paladins ranks first coming out of the OUA East and will be joined by teammates Tucker Densmore (Ottawa) and Eric Castellani (Montreal).
RMC is the defending men’s epee champions having won the title three of the past four seasons. With Brendan Kilburn (Kingston, Ont.), Andrew Sheahan (Kingston, Ont.) and Liam Roach (Ottawa) ranked as the top 3 student-athletes coming out of the East qualifier, the Paladins still appear to be the team to beat. A strong Mustangs duo of Mark Jones (London, Ont.) and Jordan Patterson (Newmarket, Ont.) will attempt to stand in the way of RMC, as will Tim Svidnytskiy (Aurora, Ont.) and Ken Dalton (Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.) of the Brock Badgers. Kilburn and Jones are previous winners of the Desjarlais Trophy as men's individual epee champion.
The host Ravens are the defending men’s sabre champions, and will turn to Mike Ivancovic (Kitchener, Ont.), Ben Riley (Osgoode, Ont.), Devan Marr (Ottawa) and Jonathon Girard (Dunnville, Ont.) to return glory to Carleton. Riley has won the Schwende-Tully Trophy as individual men’s sabre champion three straight years and is the two-time winner of the George Tulley Trophy for the fencer most proficient in skill, style and sportsmanship.
Frank Beaucage-Gauvreau (Montreal) of the Queen's Gaels is ranked No. 1 coming out of the East qualifier, while Gordon Geringas (Toronto) and Akash Toprani (Vancouver) of the Varsity Blues went undefeated in the West qualifier.
Student-athletes from nine OUA schools, including Brock, Carleton, McMaster, Queen's, RMC, Ryerson, Toronto, Trent and Western, will be competing at the 2010 OUA fencing championships on February 13 and 14 at Carleton University in Ottawa.
Source: OUA
