Blues break three OUA records, lead the field after Day One of OUA Swimming Championships

(Photo: Richard A. Whittaker)

The Ontario University Athletics Swimming Championships kicked off at the University of Ottawa's Montpetit Hall on Thursday and three conference records came crashing down. The Toronto Varsity Blues were responsible for each of those new standard times and lead both the men's and women's team standings after Day One.

In fact, the team standings are identical for the top five teams with Western, McMaster, Guelph, and Ottawa rounding out the leaders in both men's and women's competition.

The Varsity Blues took home 10 of the day's 14 gold medals with Western's seniors Robert Wise and Emma Sproule sweeping the 400-metre freestyle event and the Mustang duo of Jennifer McNaughton and Sarah Asselin going 1-2 in the 200-metre butterfly. The hosts from Ottawa took the only other gold medal of the day from Toronto with third-year Robert Bonomo edging out the defending Varsity Blues champion in the 100-metre backstroke.

Toronto's Kylie Masse toppled the first OUA record of the day in the preliminary round, swimming a 1:00.02 in the 100-metre backstroke – the best time since 2011. The rookie then crossed the one minute barrier in the final to establish the new record at 59.15.

Next to fall was the record mark in the 200-metre breaststroke. Vanessa Treasure captured her fourth straight OUA gold with a time of 2:28.95, topping her own record from 2014 by four one hundredths of a second.

The men's 200 breaststroke record was also set on Thursday as Toronto's Eli Wall touched in at 2:12.14, breaking the old mark by over one second and topping his team mate David Riley – last year's gold medallist.

Competition resumes Friday at 10 a.m. with the preliminary rounds. Day Two finals begin at 6 p.m.

Full results: http://gokingfish.ca/liveresults/meet/

DAY ONE TEAM STANDINGS

Men:

Toronto – 356 pts

Western – 217

McMaster – 183

Guelph – 126

Ottawa – 123

Waterloo – 85

Laurentian – 77

Laurier – 63

Queen's – 40

York – 29

Brock – 12

Women:

Toronto – 275 pts

Western – 257

McMaster – 165.5

Guelph – 162.5

Ottawa – 158

Laurentian – 91

Waterloo – 64

Laurier – 52

Brock – 44

Queen's – 40

York – 26

DAY ONE MEDALS (Gold/Silver/Bronze)

Toronto 10/2/4

Western 3/5/4

Ottawa 1/3/1

McMaster 0/1/3

Guelph 0/2/1

Laurentian 0/0/1

DAY ONE INDIVIDUAL MEDALISTS (Thursday)
Women 200 Free Relay
1. Toronto 1:44.44
(Melanie McDonald, Kylie Masse, Kate Lyne, Paige Schultz)
2. Western 1:45.01
(Katie Keeping, Paulina Bond, Hayley Hess, Kelly Hotta)
3. McMaster 1:45.34
(Emma Mittermaier, Hannah Dvorski, Jacqueline McDonald, Emily Fung)

Men 200 Free Relay
1. Toronto 1:31.85
(Edward Liu, Mitch Ferraro, Steven Hibberd, Chris Manning)
2. Western 1:33.17
(Aaron Rode, Louis Wong, Mark Loyzer, Brent Waddell)
3. McMaster 1:33.48
(Kurt Schubert, Ali Rizk, Konrad Bald, Corey Helie-Masters)

Women 400m Free
1. Emma Sproule, Western, 4:13.92
2. Caitlin Hodge, Ottawa, 4:14.42
3. Bridget Coley, Toronto, 4:17.81

Men 400m Free
1. Robert Wise, Western, 3:54.20
2. Oliver Straszynski, Toronto, 3:55.91
3. Jake Silverthorn, Western, 3:56.38

W 100m Back
1. Kylie Masse, Toronto, 59.15 OUA Record
2. Emily Anzai, Guelph, 1:01.73
3. Emma Sproule, Western, 1:02.01

M 100m Back
1. Robert Bonomo, Ottawa, 54.88
2. Matthew Myers, Toronto, 55.38
3. Eric Anderson, McMaster, 55.68

W 200m Breast
1. Vanessa Treasure, Toronto, 2:28.95 OUA Record
2. Eryn Weldon, Ottawa, 2:29.70
3. Sophie Cieplucha, Western 2:32.10

M 200m Breast
1. Eli Wall, Toronto, 2:12.14 OUA Record
2. Connor Michie, Ottawa, 2:13.38
3. David Riley, Toronto, 2:17.97

W 200m Fly
1. Jennifer McNaughton, Western, 2:14.15
2. Sarah Asselin, Western, 2:17.66
3. Melanie McDonald, Toronto, 2:18.23

M 200m Fly
1. Hochan Ryu, Toronto, 1:58.05
2. Ben Stubbs, McMaster, 2:00.26
3. Gamal Assaad, Western, 2:01.79

W 50m Free
1. Paige Schultz, Toronto, 25.53
2. Emma Mittermaier, McMaster, 25.94
3. Paulina Bond, Western, 26.15

M 50m Free
1. Chris Manning, Toronto, 22.54
2. Evan Van Moerkerke, Guelph, 23.09
3. Matthew Schouten, Laurentian, 23.26

W 800 Free Relay
1. Toronto, 8:10.69
(Victoria Radounski, Bridget Coley, Vanessa Treasure, Paige Schultz)
2. Western, 8:13.48
(Kelly Hotta, Jennifer McNaughton, Victoria Munro, Emma Sproule)
3. Ottawa 8:24.65
(Eryn Weldon, Nicole Lachance, Caitlin Hodge, Mackenzie Finkbeiner)

M 800 Free Relay
1. Toronto, 7:27.65 
(Kent Kikot, Hochan Ryu, Oliver Straszynski, David Riley)
2. Western, 7:28.43
(Robert Wise, Gamal Assaad, Jake Silverthorn, Alex Paulins)
3. Guelph, 7:29.47
(Philip Vranic, Evan Van Moerkerke, John Carroll, Myles Zagar)