MONTREAL -- Ioana Gheta and Maria Gheta each produced a pair of gold medal finishes as the McGill University women's artistic swim team opened defence of their national crown by winning the first meet of the season, hosted on campus at Memorial Pool.

The Gheta sisters, both natives of Romania, combined to win the duet routine and were also part of the team competition, which finished first of 11 entries. Ioana is an arts sophomore majoring in English, while Maria is an atmospheric science sophomore.

Others on the winning team routine, coached by Lindsay Duncan, included Emilie Charette of Oakville, Ont., Katherine Demond of Bridgewater, N.S., Lily Dong of Kanata, Ont., Sophia Ju of Andover, Mass., April Ozere of Halifax, Emma Rispler of Montreal and Annemarie Salama-Siroishka of Ste. Anne de Bellevue, Que.

Demond, a neuroscience freshman, also produced McGill's best result in the solo routine with a fifth-place finish.

"We hosted athletes from nine schools at the meet and were thrilled to see that we are on track to be a major contender," said Duncan. "Although this meet comes early in the season, our athletes all swam well, impressed the judges and the crowd, and gave us lots to look forward to for the rest of the season."

In the novice categories, McGill placed first of five entries in the team event and second of four in the duet competition.

The second of three meets on the McGill schedule will be the Eastern Canadian championships, slated for Jan. 24-25 in Ottawa. The Nationals will be in Vancouver, Feb. 14-16.

LINK TO INDIVIDUAL HIGHLIGHTS

TEAM HIGHLIGHTS OF McGILL ARTISTIC SWIM MEET
(Nov. 16, 2019)
 

	TEAM ROUTINE
1	McGill	72.8667
2	Ottawa	71.0333
3	Sherbrooke	69.0667
4	Guelph	66.3000
5	John Abbott College	65.8667
6	McGill B	64.9667
7	Laval	64.8000
8	Carleton	63.7333
9	John Abbott College B	63.5333
10	Ottawa B	60.4000
11	Carleton B	58.7000
	DUET/TRIO ROUTINE
1	McGill	74.3333
2	Ottawa	74.0667
3	Guelph	68.7000
4	Queen's	67.2333
5	Sherbrooke	66.9000
6	Queen's B	63.4333
7	McGill B	60.5333
8	Carleton	59.3667
9	Guelph B	58.7667
	SOLO ROUTINE
1	Ottawa	73.5667
2	Laval	73.5000
3	Ottawa B	69.4000
4	Laval B	67.9667
5	McGill	67.7667
6	John Abbott College	66.6667
7	Saskatchewan	64.4667
8	Ottawa C	63.8667
9	Laval C	63.2000
10	McGill B	62.9667
11	McGill C	61.9000
12	Ottawa D	60.6000
SCR	Guelph
SCR	Queen's
	NOVICE TEAM ROUTINE
1	McGill	55.0667
2	John Abbott College	54.7000
3	Ottawa	53.7000
4	Queen's	46.1667
5	Ottawa B	46.1000
	NOVICE DUET ROUTINE
1	Laval	55.4000
2	McGill	55.0667
3	Carleton	49.7333
4	Queen's	43.0667
	NOVICE SOLO ROUTINE
1	Sherbrooke	55.2667
2	Ottawa	53.9000
SCR	Sherbrooke B
SCR	McGill
SCR	Queen's