2005 Men’s & Women’s 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 men’s and women’s squad’s 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 women’s 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 men’s side, where Marshall Bonner set a Waterloo pool record and a CIS standard swim in the 50 yard backstroke.  Bonner’s time was 24.65 almost a full four seconds ahead of the next swimmer.  On the women’s 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 O’Neill (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 men’s 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 men’s side Marshall Bonner continued to impress taking home one gold and one silver, while David Cheung (Toronto) took home a bronze medal.  On the women’s side Stephanie Kuhn and Dominique Lafleur added a bronze medal each.

After two weeks of extensive training the Laurentian swim teams travelled to St. Catharine’s, 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 women’s 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 men’s and women’s swim teams, with the exception of CIS qualifiers Marshall Bonner, Colin Jenkins, Willie Paul, Ryan Smith, Stephanie Kuhn, Erin O’Neil, 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 men’s 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 team’s 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.