CIS Swimming Championships
Université Laval, Quebec City
While neither the Redmen nor the Martlets went home with any medals from the 2016 CIS Swimming Championships, both teams made more of a splash than they have in recent years. twenty-four McGill athletes made it to the final heats on day three of the meet, with 10 in the medal round and 14 in the consolation round. The University of Toronto Varsity Blues won both the men’s and women’s titles while McGill came in 12th and 8th, respectively. Graduating senior Katie Caldwell led the charge for McGill, qualifying for six finals which included a fourth-place finish in the 200m individual medley and fifth-place finishes in the 200m backstroke, 400m individual medley and as a member of the 4x200m freestyle relay. For the Redmen, freshman Jean-Daniel Vallieres made finals in the 200m individual medley, 400m individual medley and 200m butterfly, coming in 8th, 9th, and 20th, respectively.
“I am disappointed that we didn’t win a medal, but it was easily the most competitive CIS Championship ever,” McGill Head Coach Peter Carpenter said. “That said, I am proud of the team performance. The meet was filled with many pleasant surprises and some disappointments as well.”
Canadian University Synchronized Swim League National Championships
University of British Columbia, Vancouver
McGill collected its third consecutive national synchronized swimming title and their 13th of the last 15 years at the 2016 CUSSL Championships at UBC. “I am really proud of the work our athletes put in this season–they’ve been working incredibly hard since the first week of September and it is so nice to see their hard work pay off in really good performances,” Head Coach Lindsay Duncan said.
McGill’s novice teams performed very strongly with gold medals in the novice duet trio and novice team routines, scoring 59.93 points and 59.10, respectively. Madeline Perrin and Minnie Fu placed 3rd and 6th in the novice solo routine with scores of 56.63 and 55.24. In the senior team routine, the Martlet’s 71.4 was just 0.1 point short of Ottawa’s first-place performance. McGill also earned sixth-place and 11th-place finishes in the senior duet trio, and third and sixth place finishes in the senior solo routine. McGill’s dominance in Canadian collegiate synchro competitions is even more impressive by the fact that the team receives no funds from the university for league fees, travel or uniforms. The swimmers provide the budget themselves, crowdfund using McGill Seeds of Change and organize bake sales and other fundraisers to pay the bills.
RSEQ Track and Field Indoor Championships
McGill University, Montreal
McGill used its home-track-advantage to collect 17 medals—including seven golds—at the two-day Quebec Championship meet. The Redmen and Martlets both came in third place overall and qualified a total of 11 athletes to the 2016 CIS Championships at York University from March 10 to 12. The standout performer for McGill was senior Helena Reinfels, who earned three gold and one bronze medal in addition to both Athlete-of-the-meet and RSEQ Athlete-of-the-year awards. Her first gold came in a McGill-record-setting 300m race of 39.48 seconds, followed by a 9.01 second 60m hurdles win. The Puslinch, Ontario native contributed to another McGill record in the 4x200m relay in addition to a third place finish on the 4x400m relay squad. Other McGill gold medals from the meet belong to Martlet pole-vaulter Caroline Tanguay, who cleared a height of 3.40 metres, and Redman pole-vaulter Riley van Ryswyk, whose 4.86-metre vault was good enough for a new McGill record. The Redmen collected two more wins in the 4x200m and 4x400m metre relays, with the 4x400m’s 3:14.98 setting both RSEQ and McGill records. Overall, Laval took home its third consecutive RSEQ men’s title while Sherbrooke won its second straight women’s trophy.
