Toronto sweeps both Speedo CIS swimming championship titles for the first time in 23 years

QUEBEC CITY (CIS) – The University of Toronto Varsity Blues took home all the honours at the 2016 Speedo CIS swimming championships, winning both the men's and women's national title banners for the first time since 1993. The event took place Friday to Sunday at Laval University in Quebec City.

This is the 19th men's title for Toronto, improving its CIS record. For the women's, it is their 15th national banner, but first since 1997. They trail only UBC (19) for the CIS record.

The Varsity Blues men reclaimed the national championship banner, last won in 2014, with a 93-point margin over second-placed UBC. The University of Toronto finished with 859 points, while the Thunderbirds followed with 766 and Calgary took third with 646.50.

Toronto's head coach, Byron Macdonald, was more than pleased with his team's result. "We are ecstatic with it! Obviously any time you win it is a tremendous accomplishment. The big thing coming in is we thought it was going to be pretty close on both the men and the women and to be honest, we were not so sure that we could win the women's today. My captains kept telling me that I wasn't positive enough with them, but they knew they could win," said Macdonald. "UBC has got a tremendously strong team. Halfway through the session we started to pull away and I could breath easy again as we knew we kind of had it wrapped up with a couple of events to go."

The Varsity Blues women finished with 800 points, ahead of a fearless University of British Columbia contingent (749.50). The Thunderbirds won the 400 medley relay in 4:10.76 but it was not enough for the Canada West champions. The Calgary Dinos finished third with 422 points.

The V-Blues capped Day 3 with three individual golds, most notably Kylie Masse's in the 200m backstroke where she broke her third CIS Championship record in as many days.

"I'm really happy with my times, you know coming into this meet, it's a team meet so it's really exciting to have everyone really motivated and ready to race," said Masse, who was named the CIS female swimmer of the year. "I think that that helped me a lot knowing that everyone was feeling good and excited and ready to have fun and race well so that was an important factor in how I think I swam because it was motivation to swim faster and have fun."

UBC's Keegan Zanatta took home the men's swimmer of the year honours after topping the podium in the 400m and 200m freestyle. "I think that it was a really good weekend overall. I was strong in the first day, second day was good too, third day I faltered a little bit but good thing I got the job done on the first two", said Zanatta. "We came in here knowing that we were the underdogs. The group projected to come second by 300 points so the fact that we caught up to 80 points below first is pretty impressive. I'm proud to be a Bird", he added.

The men's races were capped off with a win by Toronto in the 400 medley relay in 3:44.62 ahead of Calgary, who finished second in 3:47.10.

Among the highlights on the final day of competition, four championship records fell. Besides Masse's new mark at the 200m backstroke, her Blues teammates Bridget Coley and Hochan Ryu set new national standards on 800m freestyle (8:58.09) and 200m IM (2:03.93) respectively. At the women's 200m IM, Erika Seltenreich-Hodgson of UBC set a CIS Championship record with a time of 2:12.85.

First-year swimmer Osvald Nitski was rightfully crowned CIS male rookie of the year after taking home gold medals in both the 200 butterfly and 400 IM. Toronto head coach Byron Macdonald was named both men's and women's coach of the year as 13 of his swimmers were honoured as CIS first team All-Canadians.

A strong showing at the CIS championships, Paulina Bond of Western University, was honoured with the Sprinter's Cup after winning both the 50 and 100 freestyle. UPEI's Katie Van Leeuwen and Dalhousie's Jeremy Ryant were both honoured as the Student-Athlete Community Service Award winners.

NOTES: Since 2015, finals at the Speedo CIS championships are contested in a 50-metre pool (long course), while preliminaries remain short course races (25m pool)... Records set in the preliminaries are added to the Speedo CIS championship short-course record book.

INDIVIDUAL HONOURS

Women
Swimmer of the year: Kylie Masse, Toronto
Rookie of the year: Leah Smal, Calgary
Sprinter's Cup (single winner of both 50 and 100 free): Paulina Bond, Western
TIMEX Coach of the year: Byron Macdonald, Toronto
Student-Athlete Community Service Award: Katie Van Leeuwen, UPEI

Men
Swimmer of the year: Keegan Zanatta, UBC
Rookie of the year: Osvald Nitski, Toronto
Sprinter's Cup (single winner of both 50 and 100 free): Not awarded
TIMEX Coach of the year: Byron Macdonald, Toronto
Student-Athlete Community Service Award: Jeremy Ryant, Dalhousie

NOTE (swimmers of the year): Female and male swimmers with the highest aggregate point total for his/her two best swims as based on Swimming Canada's performance charts.

NOTE (All-Canadians): All gold medallists at the CIS championships - including relays - are first-team all-Canadians for the 2015-16 season. All silver medallists who did not win a gold medal - including relays - are second-team all-Canadians.

FINAL TEAM STANDINGS

Women
1. Toronto 800 points
2. UBC 749,5
3. Calgary 422
4. Laval 410,5
5. Dalhousie 342
6. Western 322
7. Montreal 272,5
8. McGill 237
9. Guelph 208
10. Alberta 192
11. Victoria 183
12. McMaster 181,5
13. Ottawa 133
14. Regina 99
Sherbrooke 99
16. UQAM 70
17. Laurentian 60
18. UNB 55
19. Lethbridge 47
20. Manitoba 41
21. Brock 25
22. Acadia 15
23. Waterloo 10
Laurier 10

Men (Nelson C. Hart trophy)
1. Toronto 859 points
2. UBC 766
3. Calgary 646,5
4. Alberta 406
5. Western 343
6. Dalhousie 239
7. Laval 221
8. Victoria 212,5
9. Ottawa 212
10. Guelph 207
11. McMaster 168
12. McGill 128
13. Sherbrooke 96
14. Montreal 92
15. Lethbridge 82
16. Manitoba 81
17. Regina 78
18. Waterloo 31
19. Laurentian 27
Queen's 27
21. Memorial 2

DAY 3 INDIVIDUAL MEDALLISTS (Sunday)

Women 800m Free
1. Bridget Coley, Toronto, 8:58.09 (CIS championship record)
2. Maia Brundage, UBC, 8:58.11
3. Katherine Webster, Dalhousie, 9:01.62

Men 50m Breast
1. Stephen Giovanetto, Alberta, 28.60
2. Eli Wall, Toronto, 28.63
3. Jonathan Naisby, Sherbrooke, 28.75

W 50m Breast
1. Rebecca Terejko, UBC, 31.82
2. Tianna Rissling, Calgary, 31.91
3. Tera van Beilen, UBC, 32.15

M 200m Back
1. Noah Choboter, Regina, 2:03.09
2. Hochan Ryu, Toronto, 2:04.83
3. Karl Wolk, UBC, 2:05.06

W 200m Back
1. Kylie Masse, Toronto, 2:10.76 (CIS championship record)
2. Erika Seltenreich-Hodgson, UBC, 2:12.83
3. Genevieve Cantin, Laval, 2:13.14

M 100m Free
1. Evan Van Moerkerke, Guelph, 50.84
2. Carson Olafson, Toronto, 50.88
3. Robert Bonomo, Ottawa, 51.26

W 100m Free
1. Paulina Bond, Western, 56.59
2. Paige Schultz, Toronto, 56.63
3. Magalie Poudrier, Laval, 57.44

M 200m IM
1. Hochan Ryu, Toronto, 2:03.93 (CIS championship record)
2. Christian Ng, Calgary, 2:05.78
3. Jonathan Brown, UBC, 2:05.82

W 200m IM
1. Erika Seltenreich-Hodgson, UBC, 2:12.85 (CIS championship record)
2. Kylie Masse, Toronto 2:13.22
3. Erin Stamp, UBC, 2:17.84

M 1500m Free
1. Jon McKay, Victoria, 15:41.44
2. Tristan Cote, Calgary, 15:56.97
3. Jonathan Brown, UBC, 15:57.03

W 4 x 100m Medley Relay
1. UBC, 4:10.76
(Mckenzie Summers, Jacomie Strydom, Tera van Beilen, Erika Seltenreich-Hodgson)
2. Toronto, 4:12.03
(Kylie Masse, Sherry Patel, Kelsey Crocker, Paige Schultz)
3. Calgary, 4:13.26
(Leah Smal, Rachael Grothe, Tianna Rissling, Olivia Bellio)

M 4 x 100m Medley Relay
1. Toronto, 3:44.62
(Daniel Kuiack, Matthew Dans, Eli Wall, Mitchel Ferraro)
2. Calgary, 3:47.10
(Bradley Crocker, Thomas Jobin, Christopher Dalen, Alex Shogolev)
3. Alberta, 3:48.38
(Joe Byram, Josiah Binnema, Stephen Giovanetto, Tom Krywitsky)

DAY 2 INDIVIDUAL MEDALLISTS (Saturday)

Women 100m Back
1. Kylie Masse, Toronto, 59.81 (CIS championship record)
2. Marie-Pier Couillard, Laval, 1:02.13
3. Genevieve Cantin, Laval, 1:02.29

Men 100m Back
1. Noah Choboter, Regina, 55.78 (CIS championship record)
2. Bradley Crocker, Calgary, 55.98
3. Daniel Kuiack, Toronto, 56.57

W 50m Fly
1. Paulina Bond, Western, 26.96
2. Kimberley Moors, Manitoba, 27.54
3. Marie-Lou Lapointe, Montreal, 27.61

M 50m Fly
1. Matthew Dans, Toronto, 24.51
2. Dillon Perron, Manitoba, 24.57
3. Pascal-Hugo Caron-Cantin, Laval, 24.59

W 400m Free
1. Maia Brundage, UBC, 4:18.91
2. Victoria Radounski, Toronto, 4:20.21
3. Katherine Webster, Dalhousie, 4:22.69

M 400m Free
1. Keegan Zanatta, UBC, 3:53.36
2. Tristan Cote, Calgary, 3:55.50
3. Jonathan Brown, UBC, 3:57.26

W 200m Breast
1. Tera van Beilen, UBC, 2:28.52
2. Tianna Rissling, Calgary, 2:29.88
3. Erin Stamp, UBC, 2:31.35

M 200m Breast
1. Eli Wall, Toronto, 2:16.19
2. Antoine Bujold, Montreal, 2:18.19
3. Dillon Perron, Manitoba, 2:19.02

W 50m Free
1. Paulina Bond, Western, 25.88
2. Paige Schultz, Toronto, 25.95
3. Rebecca Terejko, UBC, 26.03

M 50m Free
1. Oleksandr Loginov, UBC, 22.63 (CIS championship record)
2. Cameron Kidd, Toronto, 22.85
3. Robert Bonomo, Ottawa, 23.35

W 200m Fly
1. Sophie Marois, Montreal, 2:13.93
2. Jacomie Strydom, UBC, 2:14.68
3. Danielle D'Aoust, Calgary, 2:18.45

M 200m Fly
1. Osvald Nitski, Toronto, 2:01.61
2. Thomas Jobin, Calgary, 2:03.27
3. Gamal Assaad, Western, 2:03.52

W 4 x 200m Free Relay
1. UBC, 8:14.45
(Erika Seltenreich-Hodgson, Maia Brundage, Tera van Beilen, Rebecca Terejko)
2. Toronto, 8:14.60
(Victoria Radounski, Paige Schultz, Bridget Coley, Kylie Masse)
3. Laval, 8:30.87
(Magalie Poudrier, Caitlin Hodge, Mila Arnautovich, Genevieve Cantin)

M 4 x 200m Free Relay
1. UBC, 7:29.30
(Carson Olafson, Marshal Parker, Jonathan Brown, Keegan Zanatta)
2. Calgary, 7:34.46
(Tristan Cote, Alex Shogolev, Sterling King, Christopher Neave)
3. Toronto, 7:35.81
(Gaël Chaubet, Oliver Straszynski, Osvald Nitski, Hochan Ryu)

DAY 1 INDIVIDUAL MEDALLISTS (Friday)

Women 200m Free
1. Erika Seltenreich-Hodgson, UBC, 2:00.90
2. Maia Brundage, UBC, 2:02.50
3. Paige Schultz, Toronto, 2:02.57

Men 200m Free
1. Keegan Zanatta, UBC, 1:50.28 (CIS championship record)
2. Evan Van Moerkerke, Guelph, 1:51.14
3. Oliver Straszynski, Toronto, 1:51.68

W 50m Back
1. Kylie Masse, Toronto, 27.84 (CIS championship record / Canadian record) *
2. Marie-Pier Couillard, Laval, 28.93
3. Phoebe Lenderyou, Dalhousie, 29.17

* Kylie Masse also set a CIS championship short-course record (26.72) in the preliminaries.

M 50m Back
1. Josh Dow, Calgary, 25.98 (CIS championship record)
2. Daniel Kuiack, Toronto, 26.11
3. Christopher Courtis, Calgary, 26.21

W 100m Breast
1. Tera van Beilen, UBC, 1:08.36
2. Erin Stamp, UBC, 1:10.09
3. Alexandra Naisby, Sherbrooke, 1:10.18

M 100m Breast
1. Eli Wall, Toronto, 1:02.43 (CIS championship record)
2. Dillon Perron, Manitoba, 1:03.35
3. Jonathan Naisby, Sherbrooke, 1:03.37

W 100m Fly
1. Jacomie Strydom, UBC, 1:01.14
1. Sophie Marois, Montreal, 1:01.14
3. Marie-Lou Lapointe, Montréal, 1:01.42

M 100m Fly
1. Josiah Binnema, Alberta, 54.09
2. Gamal Assaad, Western, 54.41
3. Matthew Dans, Toronto, 54.70

W 400m IM
1. Erika Seltenreich-Hodgson, UBC, 4:45.21
2. Genevieve Cantin, Laval, 4:53.96
3. Tianna Rissling, Calgary, 4:55.07

M 400m IM
1. Osvald Nitski, Toronto, 4:23.90
2. Tristan Cote, Calgary, 4:24.78
3. Colin Eriks, UBC, 4:25.30

W 4 x 100m Free Relay
1. Toronto, 3:47.36
(Victoria Radounski, Heather Lam, Kylie Masse, Paige Schultz)
2. UBC, 3:48.41
(Rebecca Terejko, Tera Van Beilen, Maia Brundage, Erika Seltenreich-Hodgson)
3. Laval, 3:52.09
(Marie-Pier Couillard, Mila Arnautovich, Magalie Poudrier, Genevieve Cantin)

M 4 x 100m Free Relay
1. Toronto, 3:23.94 (CIS championship record)
(Daniel Kuiack, Cameron Kidd, Oliver Straszynski, Mitchel Ferraro)
2. UBC, 3:24.18
(Keegan Zanatta, Justin G Chan, Carson Olafson, Marshal Parker)
3. Guelph, 3:27.63
(Eric Trevisan, Evan Van Moerkerke, John Carroll, Philip Vranic)