 2005 Mens & Womens Season
in Review
In 2004-05, the
Laurentian swim teams kicked off their season with weekend meets against the McMaster
Marauders and the Brock Badgers at the Laurentian Gold Pool. Both mens and womens squads
suffered close defeats, but had some impressive performances with Colin Jenkins (Hamilton,
Ont.) taking home two gold medals, while Marshall Bonner (Lotus, Ont.) continued where he
left off last season with a first place finish in the 50 meter backstroke. On the womens side rookie Dominique Lafleur
(Sturgeon Falls, Ont.) was named swimmer of the meet for her three gold medal winning
performance.
In their second meet
of the season the Aqua Vees would make no mistake with both squads defeating their
opponents from Brock University. For the
second day in a row, Marshall Bonner was a force to be reckoned with winning three gold
medals and leading his team to a thirty point victory.
Elisha James (Blackstock, Ont.) would lead the way for the Lady Vees also
coming home with three gold medals, while Dominique Lafleur followed up her three gold
medal performance against McMaster with two more gold medals against Brock.
The Laurentian swim
teams travelled to Waterloo to challenge the Warriors in another duel in the pool. The Lady Vees came away with a decisive victory
while the men were narrowly defeated by their opponents.
The big race of the meet came on the mens side, where Marshall Bonner
set a Waterloo pool record and a CIS standard swim in the 50 yard backstroke. Bonners time was 24.65 almost a full four
seconds ahead of the next swimmer. On the
womens side, Stephanie Kuhn (Timmins, Ont,) led the way earning five gold medals.
Next up for the Aqua
Vees was a tri-meet at the Laurentian Gold Pool against the York Lions and the Wilfrid
Laurier Golden Hawks. Laurentian went onto
sweep the weekend team results in a decisive fashion.
Top swimmers for the were Colin Jenkins and Marshall Bonner who had four
first place finishes each, while Willie Paul (Sudbury, Ont.) added five gold medals of his
own. The Laurentian women were led by the
foursome of Dominique Lafleur, Stephanie Kuhn, Elisha James, and Erin ONeill
(Sudbury) who combined for twenty-four podium finishes over the weekend.
As the first semester
of competition winded down the Laurentian swim teams were in final preparation for the
Eynon Divisional Championships at the Laurentian Gold Pool. Both teams were going to need to be at their best
if they were to hit the podium against some of the top competition in the OUA. In this three day meet the Aqua Vees took home a
combined eleven gold medals with the Lady Vees laying claim to three and the Laurentian
men taking home eight. As a team the Lady
Vees earned a bronze medal while the men claimed Eynon silver. On top of the impressive efforts put out by the
entire team to register valuable points, the Laurentian swim team also qualified six
swimmers for the CIS championships in February. Willie
Paul, Ryan Smith, Colin Jenkins, Anna Lech and Stephanie Kuhn all came prepared and met
the CIS standard in different events, while Marshall Bonner not only swam a CIS qualifying
time but set new Eynon Divisional records in the 50 and 100 metre backstroke events.
With the first half
of the season now closed the Laurentian mens teams hard work and dedication earned
themselves the sixth ranking in the CIS top ten rankings.
This honour gave the Voyageurs even more motivation to train hard over the
holiday season.
The second half of
the season saw the Laurentian swim teams compete in three meets that included a tune-up at
the University of Toronto as well as the OUA and CIS championships.
In Toronto, the
Laurentian swim teams took to the pool against a very strong field in the McGill Redman,
Guelph Gryphons and the host Varsity Blues. The
teams may have only earned five podium positions at this meet, but the valuable experience
and tight competition was the perfect tune-up for the upcoming OUA championships. On the mens side Marshall Bonner continued
to impress taking home one gold and one silver, while David Cheung (Toronto) took home a
bronze medal. On the womens side
Stephanie Kuhn and Dominique Lafleur added a bronze medal each.
After two weeks of
extensive training the Laurentian swim teams travelled to St. Catharines, Ontario to
take part in the OUA Swimming championships. Both
teams swam hard and matched their competition stroke for stroke over the three day event. The Laurentian men continued to show their
strength earning two gold, one silver and three bronze medals against the best the OUA has
to offer. Marshall Bonner continued his
impressive performances in the 50 and 100 metre backstroke events taking home two gold
medals, while Colin Jenkins and Ryan Smith took home a silver and bronze respectively in
the 400 metre individual medley. The
Voyageurs also earned bronze medals in the 4x50 metre freestyle and 4x100 metre freestyle
events. As a team the Voyageurs finished in
fourth place only 13 points back of Waterloo for third.
In womens
action it was three days of close finishes with Stephanie Kuhn narrowly missing the podium
in the 50 and 100 metre butterfly events in the first two days of competition. However, on the third day Kuhn put together
another impressive swim and earned a bronze medal in the 100 metre freestyle. As a team the Lady Vees finished in sixth spot in
the team standings.
The OUA championships
marked the end of the season for the majority of the mens and womens swim
teams, with the exception of CIS qualifiers Marshall Bonner, Colin Jenkins, Willie Paul,
Ryan Smith, Stephanie Kuhn, Erin ONeil, Elisha James, and Dominique Lafleur. These eight Laurentian swimmers travelled to
Edmonton, Alberta for the CIS swim championships which took place from February 25 to 27.
The Lady Vees took on
the top competition in the country and were able to earn themselves four top sixteen
finishes to give them a total of eight points to go towards the team standings. The Laurentian women finished sixteenth in the
4x100 metre freestyle, 200 metre butterfly, 800 metre freestyle and 400 medley relay. The Lady Vees eight points earned them nineteenth
place overall.
On the mens
side the Voyageurs were busy at work defending their CIS top ten ranking heading into the
national championships. Despite missing the
podium on all three days the Laurentian men were able to earn themselves eleven top 16
finishes and garner tenth place overall in the team standings with 96 points. The Voyageurs swam hard and thanks to strong relay
efforts and consistent swims from all four swimmers the men challenge the top teams in the
country at every turn. The highlight of the
meet for the men came in the 50 metre backstroke final where Marshall Bonner narrowly
missed the podium earning a fourth place finish in a time of 26.26.
With the season now
over the Laurentian swim teams will say farewell to five veteran swimmers. Emmanual Angrand, Denton Bonney, Willie Paul,
Elisha James and Melissa Rydahl will all graduate at the end of this school year. These athletes have been an integral part of the
Laurentian swim teams program for their entire careers at Laurentian. The Aqua Vees will now train hard and look to make
an even bigger splash in the pool next season. |