The University of Montreal hosted the University of Toronto on Oct. 31 in a dual meet between two of the CIS’ most dominant teams. Ultimately it was the Varsity Blues who took home the men’s win 117-50 as expected, and the women were also able to cause an upset, taking down the top-ranked Carabins 91-78.
“The women coming into the home pool of the number one ranked team and stealing a win; that’s special,” UofT head coach Byron MacDonald said.
The Carabin women did have sprint star Sandrine Mainville missing from competition as she was training at the new Toronto Pan Am pool with Ben Titley and the high performance squad.
Without Mainville however, the Carabins still had a stacked team which included the likes of Ariane Mainville as well as Commonwealth Games Champion Katerine Savard.
The Varsity Blues were able to trump the Carabins much due to the help of freshman swimmer Kylie Masse. Masse took home wins in the 100m (1:02.01) and 200m (2:13.44) backstrokes and even put up a fight against the current 100 fly Canadian record holder – Katerine Savard – in the 200 fly, ultimately finishing second in 2:14.29 to Savard’s 2:11.21.
Savard was absolutely dominant during the meet, also racking up wins in the 100 fly (58.84) and the 100 free (54.93) making the win no easy feat for the Varsity Blues. In the 100 free final, the Carabins made it a 1-2 finish with Ariane Mainville finishing behind Savard in 55.23. UofT’s Paige Schultz finished third in 55.40.
Schultz did get a chance to shine as she came home with a win in the 200 freestlye with a time of 2:01.15 to take down Mainville, who got the better of her in the 100, as she finished second in 2:02.15.
Sarah-Lee Hevey put up a fight against Toronto’s Vanessa Treasure in multiple events, winning the 100 breast in 1:09.78 over Treasure. Treasure went on to win the 200 breaststroke over Hevey by a full three seconds, clocking in at 2:29.17 for the gold. The two faced off once more in the 200 IM, where once again Treasure got the better of Hevey, winning the race in 2:15.53 to Hevey’s 2:15.90.
The slight victories are what gave the edge to the Toronto team, however on the men’s side there weren’t as many close calls as the Toronto men cleaned up and won every single event including the three relays.
Oliver Straszynski was the only male swimmer to come home with three victories as he charged the freestyle events coming home with wins in the 200, 400 and 800 frees.
Eli Wall, Edward Liu, and Dan Kuiack all added two individual wins, sweeping their respective stroke disciplines.
Wall, a breaststroker, took the 100 in 1:03.66 and the 200 in 2:19.67. Liu swept the fly events with a 53.56 in the 100 and a 2:00.63 in the 200. In the backstrokes, Kuiack won the 100 in 55.36 and clocked in at 1:59.18 to win the 200.
“While the guys expected to win, the times they swam were also impressive,” said MacDonald.
The UofT men showed why they’re one of the best teams in the CIS, and the women’s team was able to come up with a win against last year’s second place finishers at the CIS Championships: the University of Montreal Carabins.
Meet results can be found here.