TORONTO (CIS) – After making waves on Friday night and coming to within 24 points of the lead, the Varsity Blues men’s swim team was unable to match Calgary’s output on Day 3 of the 2010 CIS swimming championships and finished the three-day event in second place. Calgary’s men’s team held off a charge from the hosts, last year’s CIS bronze medalists, finishing the meet with 636.5 points to claim their second banner in three years.
Colin Russell etched his name in the CIS record books once again and was named the CIS male swimmer of the year and Sprinter’s Cup champion for the second consecutive year, while Byron MacDonald was named the men’s swimming coach of year - an award he last won in 1994.
“It’s always great to get recognition from your peers,” said MacDonald. “The coaches are the ones that vote for this award so obviously it was nice to get that. The swimmers, of course, are the ones that actually earn it for the coach. They swam particularly well here and it’s especially memorable because we did it at home. It’s always nice to do it at home and the swimmers really stood up and did a great job.”
After dethroning the 11-time champion UBC Thunderbirds with a CIS record 791 points in 2009, the defending champion Dinos women’s team were never threatened, holding the top spot from Day 1 to win their second consecutive banner. For the first time in school history, the Dinos have captured both the men’s and women’s team titles in the same year.
Montreal (385.5), Western (326.5) and Toronto (317.5) rounded out the top 5 in the women’s team standings, with UBC (377), Laval (361.5) and Dalhousie (240) occupying the same spots in the men’s race.
For live results & video webcast of finals: http://english.cis-sic.ca/championships/swim
With three individual gold medals and two relay gold, plus an individual silver medal and a relay silver, as well as a FINA score of 1806, Colin Russell of Burlington, Ont. was once again named the CIS male swimmer of the year. The fifth-year veteran also earned the Sprinter’s Cup for the second time in as many years, having defended both of his titles in the 50- and 100-metre freestyle events.
“It was my goal coming in and I was worried about it earlier today but it’s nice to have it,” said Russell in reference to winning a second swimmer of the meet and Sprinter’s Cup. “Today, I think I swam very well. Ending it off helping my team win the relay was a great way to end [my career at] the University of Toronto. We hit everything we wanted to going into the meet.”
Russell broke the CIS record in the men’s 50-metre freestyle, establishing and new time of 21.73. He went on to win the 100 free on Saturday in a time of 47.94, 0.73 seconds ahead of Laval’s Dominique Massie-Martel. The 2008 Olympian also captured gold in the 200m freestyle (1:45.04), was a member of the first-place 4x200 freestyle and 4x100 medley relay teams, and was a silver medalist in the 50-metre breast (27.73) and the 4x100 freestyle relay.
UBC’s Martha McCabe was named the CIS female swimmer of the year for her double-gold medal performance in the 50- and 200-metre breaststroke. The third-year swimmer scored the highest FINA score of the meet (937) and had the highest combined total of 1826.
The Toronto native finished first in the 200 breaststroke (2:21.91) as the T-Birds swept the podium on Friday night. The third-year human kinetics major placed third in the 50 breaststroke in a time of 31.95. McCabe also claimed a silver medal in the women’s 100-metre breaststroke, 0.59 seconds behind 2010 Sprinter’s Cup recipient Erica Morningstar of the Calgary Dinos.
“I’m pretty excited,” said McCabe. “I’ve never won an individual gold medal so that was my big goal coming in here so I’m thrilled to get this award as well. We had a really good meet. Our team is such a young team right now but I’m so excited for the next two years.”
Among her seven gold medals, Morningstar defended her 2009 CIS title in the 50-metre freestyle (25.21), out-touching co-silver medalists Hayley Nell of Western Ontario and Marie-Pier Ratelle of Laval (25.51) by just three-tenths of a second.
The Regina native finished the three-day event with a gold-medal performance in the 100 freestyle (54.21) on Saturday. The 2009 swimmer of the year also earned gold in the women’s 100 breast (1:06.71), 200 IM relay (2:11.57) and was a member of the Dino’s first-place finishes in the 4x100 and 4x200 freestyle relays as well as the 4x100 medley relay.
Bogdan Knezevic of the Calgary Dinos earned 2010 male rookie of the year honours. The first-year science major finished third in the 100-metre breaststroke for his first appearance on the CIS podium. Knezevic finished in a time of 1:01.11 behind teammate and gold-medalist Jason Block (59.42) and Western’s Bryn Jones (1:01.10). The Toronto native also finished fourth in the 200 breaststroke (2:14.37) and in fifth place in the 200 IM (2:01.44)
Allison Long was named the female rookie of the year with a gold-medal finish in the 50-metre breaststroke. The Calgary native finished the race in 31.10 seconds, edging Laval’s Marie-Pier Ratelle (31.77) and McCabe (31.95).
She was a member of Calgary’s gold-medal and record-setting 4x100 medley relay team and finished fourth in the 100-metre breaststroke in a time of 1:08.73 and fifth in the 200 breaststroke (2:31.24).
The aforementioned women’s relay and new national record was followed by another spectacular duel between the Dinos and the Blues in the men’s 4x100 medley. As was the case the night before, Calgary jumped out to the early lead after two swimmers. However, Toronto’s CIS champion butterflyer Zach Chetrat made up a lot of ground before giving way to Russell, who passed Calgary’s Ryan Gow to claim a second relay gold for the home town Blues.
Other Varsity Blues results on the final day of competition were Pamela Ruksys and Heather Maitland finishing second and third in the women’s 800-metre freestyle. This was a second silver medal for Ruksys (400 free). Graduating swimmer Cam Cummings also picked up a third individual podium finish. The veteran swam his way to CIS bronze in the 200 backstroke. Cummings was a bronze medalist in all three backstroke events.
INDIVIDUAL HONOURS
Women
Swimmer of the year: Martha McCabe, UBC
Rookie of the year: Allison Long, Calgary
Sprinter’s Cup (single winner of both 50 and 100 free): Erica Morningstar, Calgary
Coach of the year: Mike Blondal, Calgary
Men
Swimmer of the year: Colin Russell, Toronto
Rookie of the year: Bogdan Knezevic, Calgary
Sprinter’s Cup (single winner of both 50 and 100 free): Colin Russell, Toronto
Coach of the year: Byron MacDonald, Toronto
FINAL TEAM STANDINGS
Women
1. Calgary 679 points
2. UBC, 539
3. Montréal, 385.5
4. Western, 326.5
5. Toronto, 317.5
6. Alberta, 228
7. Laval, 211.5
8. Dalhousie, 132
9. Guelph, 107
10. Laurier, 95
11. Victoria, 88
12. McMaster, 76
13. McGill, 45
14. Ottawa, 42
15. Laurentian, 30
16. UNB, 27
17. Lethbridge, 21
18. Brock, 20
19. Regina, 14
20. Sherbrooke, 1
Men (Nelson C. Hart trophy)
1. Calgary, 636.5 points
2. Toronto, 551
3. UBC, 377
4. Laval, 361.5
5. Dalhousie, 240
6. Western, 223
7. Alberta, 206
8. Victoria, 170
9. Guelph, 149
10. Montréal, 118
11. Ottawa, 107
12. McGill, 105
13. McMaster, 70
14. Manitoba. 26
15. Lethbridge, 22
16. Sherbrooke, 16
17. York, 9
18. Memorial, 3
19. Waterloo, 2
DAY 3 INDIVIDUAL MEDALLISTS (Saturday)
W 800m Free
1. Kevyn Peterson, Calgary, 8:37.04
2. Pamela Ruksys, Toronto, 8:38.90
3. Heather Maitland, Toronto, 8:45.81
M 50m Breast
1. Jason Block, Calgary, 27.56
2. Colin Russell, Toronto, 27.73
3. Ryan Gow, Calgary, 28.32
W 50m Breast
1. Allison Long, Calgary, 31.10
2. Marie-Pier Ratelle, Laval, 31.77
3. Martha McCabe, UBC, 31.95
M 200m Back
1. Nicholas Sinclair, Victoria, 1:56.36
2. Andrew Ford, Guelph, 1:56.45
3. Cam Cummings, Toronto, 1:57. 41
W 200m Back
1. Katy Murdoch, Calgary, 2:09.37
2. Jessika Craig, Calgary, 2:11.26
3. Chrystele Roy L’Ecuyer, Montréal, 2:11.59
M 100m Free
1. Colin Russell, Toronto, 47.94
2. Dominique Massie-Martel, Laval, 49.21
3. Ryan Gow, Calgary, 49.29
W 100m Free
1. Erica Morningstar, Calgary, 54.21
2. Genevieve Samur, Montreal, 54.71
3. Seanna Mitchell, Calgary, 55.18
M 200m IM
1. Andrew Ford, Guelph, 2:00.47
2. Colin Miazga, Calgary, 2:00.67
3. Steven Bielby, McGill, 2:01.11
W 200m IM
1. Erica Morningstar, Calgary, 2:11.57
2. Hanna Pierse, UBC, 2:13.92
3. Jessica Johnson, Calgary, 2:15.84
M 1500m Free
1. Steven Bielby, McGill, 15:18.09
2. Julien Sauvage, Western, 15:22.86
3. Craig Dagnall, Victoria, 15:30.09
W 4 x 100m Medley Relay
1. Calgary 4:03.28 (Canadian Record)
(Katy Murdoch, Allison Long, Seanna Mitchell, Erica Morningstar)
2. Montreal, 4:03.78
(Chrystele Roy L’Ecuyer, Sarah-Lee Hevey, Audrey Lacroix, Genevieve Samur
3. UBC, 4:07.97
(Rachelle Salli, Martha McCabe, Erin Miller, Brittney Harley)
M 4 x 100m Medley Relay
1. Toronto, 3:37.53
(Cam Cummings, Marco Monaco, Zack Chetrat, Colin Russell)
2. Calgary, 3:38.76
(Dan Langlois, Jason Block, Andrew Kudaba, Ryan Gow)
3. Laval, 3:41.39
(Bruno Langlois, Kevin Deret, Eric Cantin, Dominique Massie-Martel)