OTTAWA – Elizabeth Ling of McGill University collected three gold medals as the No. 4-ranked Martlets finished first of six schools to win the fourth RSEQ University Cup competition of the season, held in Ottawa, Sunday.

It was the fourth meet title in as many RSEQ competitions for the McGill women, who scored 589 points to finish well ahead of second-place Ottawa (261). The Montreal Carabins were third with 239, followed by Laval (168), Sherbrooke (125) and UQTR (27).

The McGill women posted eight first-place finishes in 10 race finals.
 
"Our women continued their run of dominance and our men took Ottawa's best shot and still managed to win again," McGill head coach Peter Carpenter said.  "I was particularly proud of how the team performed under duress.  The last three weeks of training have been by far the hardest of the season and we still had some team members manage to come up with seasonal best times. It was also nice to finally get Pablo Collin into his first meet of the year and he even managed to win (two golds)."

Ling, a 21-year-old civil engineering senior, was the second-highest scoring athlete of the meet with 579 points, based on the FINA scale. A 5-foot-4 sprinter, Ling won the 50-metre breaststroke (32.58), the 50 freestyle (26.24) and anchored the winning 4x100 freestyle relay (3:50.40). Each of her golden performances met the qualification standards for the U SPORTS national championships, to be hosted by McGill, Mar. 7-9, in Pte. Claire, Que.
 
Joining her on the winning relay was Greta Zapparoli, a management junior from Italy, Maya McGhan, a management freshman from Ottawa and Cailin McMurray, a biology junior from Montreal.
 
Zapparoli also anchored the winning 4x100 medley relay which touched the wall in 4:12.00. Others on that relay included Emilia Mastromatteo, a science sophomore from Kenora, Ont., Naomie Lo, a software engineering junior from Toronto and Marion Synishin, an anatomical science junior from Halifax. Synishin also claimed the top spot in the 100 breaststroke with a Nationals qualifying time of 1:10.64.
 
Rounding out the individual gold medal winners for the Martlets Iris Tinmouth (800 free, 8:54.71), a science sophomore from Comox, B.C., and a pair of Montrealers, Natasha Frost (200 back, 2:16.66) and Mia Desjarlais (400 IM, 4:59.24), both science sophomores.
 
Up next for the team will be the RSEQ championship meet in Quebec City, Feb. 16-18. McGill has qualified 19 men and 15 women for the U SPORTS national championships.
 
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COMPLETE RESULTS

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Earl Zukerman
Sports Information Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-983-7012 (cell.)
www.mcgillathletics.ca
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca