QUEBEC CITY --
Clement Secchi won four gold medals, set two school records and was named swimmer of the meet as McGill mopped up in the second Quebec Cup competition of the season, Sunday, at Université Laval.
It was the third straight meet victory for the McGill men, ranked No.2 in Canada, who finished first of six schools with 408.5 points, easily outdistancing the second-place Montreal Carabins (308.5).
On the women's side,
Daphne Danyluk and
Gabriella Doueihy each struck gold as the No.6 ranked Martlets finished third with 259 points, behind meet-winning Montreal (336) and second-place Ottawa (265).
McGill swept the combined standings -- for the first time in a Quebec Cup meet since 2011 -- finishing 23 points ahead of the Carabins.
"It was fun to be in it," said head coach
Peter Carpenter. "The team responded really well. There was definitely fatigue (after last week's meet in Halifax) but we geared up for this weekend."
A compact schedule of back-to-back meets did not hold them back, however, as the men and women combined for 11 gold medals and three more school records.
Secchi, a 19-year-old management sophomore from Aix-en-Provence, in southern France, scored a meet-high 652 points on the FINA scale to edge out Ottawa's
Davide Casarin for male athlete-of-the-meet honours by three points.
He broke the 100-metre freestyle record on his leadoff leg of the gold-medal winning 4x100. The 5-foot-10, 140-pound sprinter registered a sizzling 49.10 seconds to erase
Marc-Andre Benoit's 49.37, set in 2012.
Secchi's other gold medals occurred in the 200 backstroke (1:58.77), 100 butterfly (54.03) and the 4x100 medley relay (3:41.60), which also included
Kade Wist from Calgary,
Eric Pelletier of Baie d'Urfé, Que., and
Marius Collin of Marseille (France).
Other members joining Secchi on the 4x100 FR were Wist,
William Simpson and
Brandon Freiberger. Their time of 3:20.03 surpassed the seven-year-old school mark of 3:20.85.
Simpson, a 21-year-old senior from Kingston, Ont., erased his own 200 free record, touching the wall in 1:48.61 to win bronze. He also finished atop the podium in the 50 freestyle (23.30).
Brian Yu, an 18-year-old freshman from Beijing, won the 50 breast (28.72) and was second in the 100 breast.
Leading the way for the Martlets was Danyluk, a 21-year-old anatomy freshman from Rivière-des-Prairies, Que., who claimed victory in the 200 back (2:13.59) and bronze in the 50 breast.
Doueihy, a biology junior who hails from Lebanon, took the 400 individual medley, clocking in at 4:52.01, which bettered her winning performance at Halifax last week by two seconds.
The Martlets's only other podium finish was by
Claire Shewchuk, a civil engineering sophomore from Edmonton, who merited silver in the 300 back (2:15.99).
The female athlete of the meet was
Anais Arlandis of the Montreal Carabins. She also won four gold medals and scored a meet-high 680.5 points on the FINA chart.
"I think that if we can continue to build on where we are now, we will be in a position to solidify McGill's ranking in the top teams in Canada," said Wist, the men's team captain. "We are shifting our focus back to training after a solid few weekends of racing and getting ready for our final push of the season."
The McGill team will be heading off to Barbados after the Christmas break before they return to racing on Jan. 17 for the third Quebec Cup meet.
LINK TO COMPLETE RESULTS
| MEET STANDINGS |
|
|
|
| MEN: |
PTS |
| 1. McGill |
408.5 |
| 2. Montreal |
308.5 |
| 3. Ottawa |
232.0 |
| 4. Laval |
208.0 |
| 5. Sherbrooke |
23.0 |
| 6. UQTR |
0.0 |
|
|
| WOMEN: |
PTS |
| 1. Montreal |
336.0 |
| 2. Ottawa |
265.0 |
| 3. McGill |
259.0 |
| 4. Laval |
219.0 |
| 5. Sherbrooke |
51.0 |
| 6. UQTR |
50.0 |
McGILL'S BEST PERFORMANCES AT QUEBEC CUP 2 MEET
(@ Quebec City, Nov. 24/19)
