Waterloo men, Toronto women set to defend titles at OUA Golf Championship

BURLINGTON, Ont. - As golf season comes to a close in Canada, OUA golfers will wrap up the year at the Oshawa Golf and Curling Club for the OUA Golf Championship, hosted by the UOIT Ridgebacks, on October 18-20.

Teams are gearing up for the biggest tournament of the OUA season as they look to knock off the Waterloo Warriors on the men's side and the University of Toronto Varsity Blues on the women's.

The Waterloo Warriors still look like the powerhouse of OUA this year, coming off five straight tournament wins heading into the championship next week.

The men took home the team and individual gold medals at the McMaster Invitational, the last tournament of the regular season, with Jake Adams (London, Ont.) and Gajan Sivabalasingham (Stouffville, Ont.) both posting a 2-under 69 to share first place honours.

With Sivabalasingham taking home gold, five different players have won individual gold for the Warriors this season. Waterloo is the defending OUA champs from last year, with Sivabalasingham finishing first overall in that tournament as well. The black and gold are poised to make another run at first place this year as the early favourite, but the rest of the competition knows that it can be anyone's tournament depending on whichever way the wind blows.

Before Waterloo asserted its recent dominance on the links, Western was the powerhouse of OUA. The Mustangs took home three provincial championships in the past five years, with the other two going to the Warriors.

Western got off to a strong start this season taking the Western Open and Invitational after a tight race with Laurier in which the fifth team members score had to be taken into account in order to determine the winner.

Last seaon, the team of Harris Bundy, Charles Fitzsimmons, Spencer Berk, and Sam Hebert finished in 10^th place at the Canadian University/College Championship in Guelph, Ont. with a cumulative score of +69.

With team captain Charles Fitzsimmons (Toronto, Ont.) returning once again to lead the Mustangs this year, expect Western to be vying for gold at the end of the competition.

The Laurier Golden Hawks men's team also head into the championship on a strong note, finishing the season with a team silver medal finish at the McMaster Invitational.

For the third consecutive tournament, Laurier finished among the top three teams as they shot a team-total of 303, finishing second behind their cross-town rivals, the Waterloo Warriors. Leading the way for the purple and gold was Austin Ryan (Waterloo, Ont.), who finished tied for third after even-par round of 71. That earned him an individual bronze medal and was the second straight tournament he's medaled in after winning the Gryphons Invitational.

For host UOIT, knowledge of their home course will play a huge advantage over visiting schools, particularly for fifth-year student-athlete James Krantz (Oshawa, Ont.). The mechanical engineering major took home first place in the Queen's Invitational earlier in the year, and finished third at the Western Invitational. Krantz has consistently finished near the top of the leaderboard this season, finishing 12^th or better in five of the six tournaments.

The Guelph Gryphons have also been consistently strong season this year, finishing third behind Waterloo and Laurier at last week's McMaster Invitational to finish off regular season competition. Guelph ended up on the podium at each of the five events they competed in this year.

Brock has also shown signs of promise this season, with the Badgers placing 3rd at the Gryphons Invitational and 6th at UW / WLU Invitational. In Guelph, the Badgers had three players finish in the top 10 including Adam Graham (72 - 6th), Jeff Clarke (73 - 7th) and Taylor Tyminski (74 - 9th).

The University of Toronto Varsity Blues men will look to returning OUA all-stars Ryan Tsang (Thornhill, Ont.) and Marcus Lam (Hong Kong) to help them improve upon their fifth-place finish at last year's OUA championship.  Tsang won the individual title at last month's Mercyhurst Invitational, while Gordie Gibson (Toronto, Ont.) and Tyler Miehe (Unionville, Ont.) have also had solid seasons leading up to the provincial championship.

Carleton's men's golf team got off to a good start this season, capturing their own Carleton Ravens Invitational Golf Tournament, after shooting a low team score of 304.  The Ravens were led in that win by Chris Collins and Cam McNair (posting 74's and tying for 2^nd in the individual standings), while Dan Ludwick's 75 along with Nick Boyd's 81 helped the team secure gold.

Rounding out the men's side of the tournament will be competitors from the York Lions, Windsor Lancers, McMaster Marauders, Queen's Gaels, and Laurentian Voyageurs.

On the women's side, the University of Toronto Varsity Blues have run the show all season, led by Laura Upenieks (Etobicoke, Ont.). The Varsity Blues took home top honours at their past three tournaments, the last of which being the Waterloo/Laurier Invitational.

Upenieks, a six-time OUA all-star won the individual title in Waterloo, shooting a two-day total of 156 (81, 75).  Joining Upenieks will be the 2014 OUA individual champion Sarah Dunning (Waterloo, Ont.). Together the duo has helped U of T win all three tournaments they have competed in this season, including the Toronto Invitational, Allegheny College Invitational and Waterloo Invitational.

The Blues dominated the Oshawa Golf and Curling Club last year, winning the title by 23 strokes and are looking to become just the second team to win four consecutive titles, joining Western (2005-08).

The Waterloo Warriors women's golf team is finishing up a strong season and look to continue their winning ways in Oshawa. The Warriors took home their third team gold of the season, capturing the McMaster Invitational in windy conditions, led by second-year Laura Luna-Cabrera (Bogota, Columbia) who shot an 82 to collect the individual gold medal.  Her teammate, rookie Elanna Lachaine-DeMarchi (Cambridge, Ont.) was third overall with her score of 87.

The Warriors cross-town rivals from Laurier might turn some heads at the OUA Golf Championship this year, as the Laurier Golden Hawks have steadily improved since their inception in 2013.

The Laurier women earned a team silver medal at the Guelph Invitational this year, marking their best team result in the young programs history. Laurier was led by Skylar Turkiewicz (Brantford, Ont.), who earned the individual gold medal at the Gryphon Invitational last week and was the first woman from the program to win an OUA event. The third-year business student-athlete shot a 5-over par 77 to win the event by two strokes and set a personal best as the lowest round of her Golden Hawk career.

The Western Mustangs will be looking to improve on their third-place championship finish last year, and head to the Oshawa Golf and Curling Club with something to prove this year. The Mustangs finished behind the Varsity Blues and Warriors last season, just one shot back of second-place Waterloo.

The Queen's Gaels women's team has brought home some hardware of their own this year, finishing 3^rd at the University of Toronto Invitational. The bronze in Toronto brought their medal count to three this year. Robyn Campbell (Cornwall, Ont.) had the second best score of the day with an 81, just behind the two leaders who were tied at 79.

Led by Samantha Coates (Kanata, Ont.), another school to keep an eye on this week is the Carleton Ravens.  Coates finished in a first-place tie with the University of Toronto's Kelsey Fuchs earlier this season at the Toronto Invitiational.  Earlier in the season, Coates finished fifth at the Carleton Ravens Invitational Golf Tournament, while the Ravens team left the tournament with a bronze medal.

Other schools competing next week on the women's side include the Guelph Gryphons, McMaster Marauders, Windsor Lancers, Brock Badgers and Laurentian Voyageurs.

Each women's team will consist of a maximum of four players and a minimum of three, while the men's teams will have a maximum of five and a minimum of four players. 

The OUA Golf Championship, which will begin on Monday with a shotgun format (all players commence at the same time from different holes) consists of 36 holes of stroke play.  These will be played over the course of two days with 18 holes played on day one, followed by 18 holes on day 2. 

The three low gross scores from each women's team will be totaled each day to determine that team's score.  The same rules apply to the men's championship, however, four low gross scores will be tallied. The individual player who posts the low gross score for 36 holes will be declared the individual men's / women's champion. 

Play begins on Monday morning at the Oshawa Golf and Curling Club and will conclude Tuesday evening with the presentation of championship banners and medals at the closing ceremonies. 

Visit OUA.ca or follow @OUAsport on Twitter for updates throughout the championship.