The University of Toronto Varsity Blues played host to the McMaster Marauders yesterday at a dual meet held contested at the Varsity Pool in Toronto. Both the men and women from UofT were able to defeat their visitors in a similar fashion; the men winning 98-69, the women 99-68. Their display of domination gave them the win in all but three events, a great sign considering that we’re just six weeks away from the CIS Championships.
The UofT women started off the meet by defeating their rivals in the 200m medley relay. The team which included stand-out freestyler Paige Shultz set a new meet record with a time of 1:56.19, which was just shy of their season best of 1:55.54 from mid November. The only teams that have been faster than that this year are UBC and the Université de Montréal.
The men followed in the girls’ shoes by taking the 200m medley relay title as well, also setting a meet record. The team that featured the likes of Edward Liu and Chris Manning posted a quick time of 1:43.03 to defeat the Marauders. Currently, the Marauders are ranked first in the event with a 1:41.16 which they swam at the Canada Cup.
Vanessa Treasure who swam the breaststroke leg for the women in the relay broke her own meet record in the 200m IM. Treasure seam to a 2:16.44, adding to her second record of the meet. Not satisfied with just two records, Treasure went on to smash the 100m breaststroke record en route to swimming a 1:10.58 which is the fastest she’s been all season.
Freshman Hochan Ryu broke the meet record in the 200m IM with a time of 2:03.24. Ryu is currently ranked fifth in the event this season for the 2:02.26 that he swam at the Canada Cup.
Treasure wasn’t the only relay swimmer who went on to win individual events; teammates Sherry Patel and Paige Shultz each came home with a win as well. Patel set a meet record in the 50m fly with a winning time of 27.76 to create a huge gap between her and second place finisher Sarah Taylor from McMaster. Shultz went on to win both the 400m freestyle and 100m IM, showing her athletic diversity. Shultz is currently ranked top three in four different individual events: the 100m freestyle (second), the 200m freestyle (third), the 100m IM (first), and the 200m IM (second) making her a huge threat heading into the CIS championships.
Canadian World Championship team members Chris Manning and Zach Chetrat also helped secure UofT’s victory with a combined total of three individual wins. Manning dominated the 50m and 100m breaststroke, setting a meet record of 1:03.31 in the latter. Chetrat went on to win the 400m freestyle, stepping out of his 200m fly speciality.
McMaster, who just came back from a training camp in Puerto Rico, put up a good fight but was no threat to the overwhelmingly powerful UofT team. The Varsity Blues are looking great heading into the CIS Championships. With a smooth shave and a relaxing taper, we will almost certainly see some speedy swimming in six weeks from these two teams.
For full meet results click here.