Toronto, ON – The Mustangs Swimming team is bringing home 24 medals from the 2022 OUA Championship this weekend, hosted in Toronto.
The Women's team finished in 2nd place overall, picking up a silver medal while the Men's team finished 3rd to take bronze.
"I'm very pleased with the performance of the team over the last 3 days. We had a fair number of lifetime best times, which is quite an accomplishment considering our abbreviated season." Said Mustangs Head Coach Paul Midgley.
Over the three days, many Mustangs won multiple medals including 5th year Sebastian Paulins who comes home with 6 total medals (3 gold and 3 silver).
"It was a great ending to my OUA career, capturing gold in the 1500m free and silver in the 4x100 free on the final day with my teammates. There is no other way I would've wanted to finish the meet."
Paulins was also given an Award of Distinction for his efforts at the championship.
Graduating senior Joan-Shiao Chen was also named the female winner of the OUA Community Service Award, this is given to a swimmer who excels in athletics, academics, and community service. Joan, the current MASC (Mustangs Athlete Student Council) President and the Founder and Chair of the Varsity EDI Committee is in her final year with the Mustangs. The Integrated Engineering student earned 3 medals (2 silver, 1 bronze) on the weekend.
"I'm so thankful to my coaches and teammates who have supported me over the last 5 years, and to the entire Mustangs student-athlete community for helping me achieve my goals in and out of the pool." said Chen "I'm excited to see what's next for all of the young swimmers on our team who will continue the Western Swimming legacy."
The Mustangs will be back in action next Saturday, March 19th for an in-house time trial before heading off to the USPORTS Championships in Quebec City from March 24-26th.
Event Medal Recap:
Day 1
Men:
Silver: Sebastian Paulins (200 Freestyle)
Bronze: Kieran Stone (200 Freestyle)
Bronze: 200 Freestyle Relay (Daniel Ortiz, Alvin Omondi, Justin D'Ailly, Brett Liem)
Bronze: 400 Medley Relay (Cameron Maxwell, Alexander Jensen, Vladislav Zagidulin, Justin D'Ailly)
Women:
Silver: Shona Branton (100 Breaststroke)
Silver: Ella Rennie (400 Individual Medley)
Silver: 400 Medley Relay (Emma Miron, Shona Branton, Megan Deering, Joan-Shiao Chen)
Bronze: 200 Free Relay (Hailey Lynch, Joan-Shiao Chen, Samantha Roberts, Emily Smith)
Day 2
Men:
Gold: Sebastian Paulins (400 Freestyle)
Gold: 800 Freestyle Relay (Kieran Stone, Hayden Bartoch, Ethan Placek, Sebastian Paulins)
Silver: Sebastian Paulins (200 Butterfly)
Bronze: Kieran Stone (400 Freestyle)
Women:
Bronze: Claire Macleod (200 Butterfly)
Bronze: Ella Rennie (200 Breaststroke)
Bronze: 800 Freestyle Relay (Kennedy Scott, Emiko Osborne, Claire Macleod, Ella Rennie)
Day 3
Men:
Gold: Sebastian Paulins (1500 Freestyle)
Silver: 400 Freestyle Relay (Kieran Stone, Ethan Placek, Brett Liem, Sebastian Paulins)
Bronze: Hayden Bartoch (1500 Freestyle)
Bronze: Kieran Stone (200 Individual Medley)
Women:
Gold: Shona Branton (50 Breaststroke)
Gold: Ella Rennie (200 Individual Medley)
Silver: 400 Freestyle Relay (Samantha Roberts, Ella Rennie, Kennedy Scott, Joan-Shiao Chen)
Silver: 200 Medley Relay (Sophia Hartvikson, Shona Branton, Megan Deering, Samantha Roberts)
Bronze: Megan Deering (50 Breaststroke)
MAJOR INDIVIDUAL AWARD WINNERS
Swimmer of the Year
Female - Raili Kary (Toronto)
Male - Jacob Gallant (Toronto)
Rookie of the Year
Female - Raili Kary (Toronto)
Male - Jacob Gallant (Toronto)
Coach of the Year
Female - Pierre Lafontaine (Carleton)
Male - Pierre Lafontaine (Carleton)
Dr. Jeno Tihanyi Individual Medley Excellence Award
Female - Aleksa Gold (Toronto)
Male -Jacob Gallant (Toronto)
Community Service Award
Female - Joan-Shiao Chen (Western)
Male - Matt Halpen (Queen's)
Awards of Distinction
Eloise Ladyman (Waterloo)
Ainsley McMurray (Toronto)
Kate Rendall (Toronto)
Ethan Fazekas (Toronto)
Sebastian Paulins (Western)
FINAL TEAM STANDINGS
Women's:
Toronto – 1175.5
Western – 666.5
McMaster – 583
Guelph – 451.5
Waterloo – 250.5
Carleton – 184
Queen's – 176
Brock – 120
Laurier– 92
York – 28
Men's:
Toronto – 1060
Waterloo – 617
Western – 588
McMaster – 356.5
Carleton – 258.5
Guelph – 257
Brock – 212
Queen's – 170
Laurier – 155.5
York – 3.5
