OTTAWA –
Michely Chen struck gold twice and
Maria Gheta won one gold and a pair of silver medals for the McGill University women's artistic swim team at the Eastern Canadian meet, a two-day competition hosted over the weekend at the Minto Sports Complex, in the nation's capital.
Chen, a native of Taiwan who is working on a master's degree in experimental medicine, finished atop the podium in the novice solo routine and helped guide McGill to victory in the novice team routine.
Gheta, an atmospheric science sophomore originally from Romania, guided McGill's elite white squad to a first-place in the team routine, placed second in the solo routine and joined her sister
Ioana Gheta for a silver-medal finish in the duet routine.
Joining the Gheta siblings on the winning team routine was
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.
Chen was joined on the victorious novice routine by
Lorna Fernandez-Ciruela of Spain,
Joy Tseng of Taiwan,
Mathilde Lotz of France,
Christina Wang of Waterloo, Ont.,
Leah Birch of Hudson, Que.,
Taylor Hu of Vancouver, B.C., and the sister act of
Angely Te and
Tiffany Te, both Montrealers.
"We were thrilled to see that all of our athletes were so well prepared. They have been working really hard and it certainly paid off in very focused performances," said McGill head coach
Lindsay Duncan. "There is work to do to get the routines to the next level before Nationals next month but we saw this weekend that we are well on our way."
Up next on the schedule is the team's "Nationals Send-off Water Show", scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 11 at 8 p.m. in the Memorial Pool, located in the Currie Gym. It will be their final opportunity to fine-tune everything before defending their national title at the Canadian University Artistic Swimming League championship meet in Vancouver, B.C., Feb. 14-16.
SEE COMPLETE RESULTS
