Beginning last Saturday, Brock’s varsity swim teams competed in the Boles Divisional Championship.
Taking place in Brock’s Eleanor Misener Aquatic Centre, the event was the fifth competition of the swim team’s season and their third at home. It was also the Badger’s first Ontario University Athletics (OUA) competition after two straight club events.
The men’s swimming team looked strong warming up before the weekend competition.
Their latest competition was the North York Club Aquatic Club Cup, an early November event taking place in Toronto. Badgers Tomas Galvez (1500m freestyle) and Jami Fuson (800m freestyle) both claimed first in their events, while tacking on third place in the 400m free and 400m individual medley respectively.
One second place and two third places were also earned by Ryan Bossy in 1500m freestyle, Anthony Gunn in 50m fly and Julien Legault in 50m backstroke.
Bossy was also impressive in the previous week’s competition when the Badgers played host to local club teams in the Walker Club Invitational. Bossy recorded two lifetime best times in the competition.
Both the women’s and men’s teams had performed even better this week in another Brock-hosted tournament, the Brock Fall Invitational.
Brock accrued the most points from their men’s and women’s teams combined, nabbing first place.
Gunn and Anthonie Korstanje both won first place in their events, while the pair, along with Legault and Evan Karlov, also won the 200m medley relay.
That first place finish capped off what had already been a successful weekend for the quartet; the four had captured silver in the same event a day earlier in the season opener.
The only other medal finish from the men’s side was Gunn, who garnered silver in the 50m fly. However, evidenced by their two most recent competitions, it felt like the Badgers had been building steam ahead of the Boles Divisional Championship.
The feeling, it turned out, was well founded. Scoring 1,030 points over the weekend, the men’s team surged ahead of other universities Guelph, Laurier, Carleton and York to win their first divisional championship in program history.
Julien Legault – who would later be named the Badgers’ male athlete of the week on Nov. 28 – was the standout performer of the weekend.
Individually, Legault placed first in the 50m backstroke and the 100m backstroke, and second in the 200m backstroke. Legault’s time in each of the three events set a new Brock record.
On the relay side, Legault was instrumental in a successful team effort. He was a key cog in the 4x50m medley’s win, and recorded the fastest split in the second-place-finishing 4x50m freestyle. Both the medley relay teams’ final times and Legault’s individual freestyle split set school records.
Karlov was also impressive for the Badgers. Karlov placed first in the 100m free and 200m free, second in the 50m free and fourth in the 50m fly, in addition to second place finishes in the 50m and 100m freestyle relays.
Gunn was first in the 100m fly, second in the 50m fly, and third in the 100m free, while Galvez added Brock’s final medal placement with a second-overall finish in the 1500m free.
After a successful stretch, the Badgers have some time off before their next competition. Their next two events will be hosted by the University of Toronto in early January, while the Badgers finally return for their next home competition on Jan. 28 for the Brock Winter Invitational.
For the team’s full schedule, go to their gobadgers.ca page.
