MONTREAL – The McGill women's swim team stunned the defending national champion University of Toronto Varsity Blues with a thrilling head-to-head victory in dual meet at Memorial Pool, Sunday. In a showdown of last year's U SPORTS gold and bronze medalists, the underdog Martlets racked up 209.5 points compared to Toronto's 195.5.
More importantly, the event was coined the "A Splash for Purple" and served as a fundraiser that collected more than $8,300 for pancreatic cancer research.
"This can certainly be described as an upset as it's the first time we have lost a meet - including dual meets, tri-meets, OUA finals, or national championships in over four years," said Varsity Blues head coach
Byron MacDonald. "We were so excited by the meet though that we have already started discussion on how to make it an annual home-and-away event in the years to come."
The Martlets won 11 of 18 races at the short-course venue, including four by
Emilia Mastromatteo. The 20-year-old sprinter took the 50-metre backstroke (28.15), 50m breast (32.07), 50m butterfly (27.89) and was part of the winning 4x50 medley relay (1:54.69) that included
Elizabeth Ling,
Nathalie Day and
Greta Zapparoli.
"This was an incredible day," said McGill head coach
Peter Carpenter, whose troops swept the third University Cup of the season on Saturday. "After racing hard yesterday afternoon in Ottawa, our team stepped up the effort in a very tough dual meet situation. Almost everyone raced four times in less than three hours, and I could not be prouder of how deep the team dug in emotionally.
"In the end our women beat the defending national champions and our men came up just short of the Toronto men, also defending champs, who showed up with a huge squad."
Ling and Zapparoli were part of a mixed 4x100 relay that won in 3:34.84 with members of the men's squad, which included
Bruno Dehem-Lemelin and
Hocine Feddag.
Other individual race wins for the McGill women included
Nathalie Day (200 IM; 2:20.89),
Maya McGhan (50 breast, 33.97; and 50 back, 30.82),
Naomie Lo (200 fly, 2:15.79),
Kealeigh McLeod (400 IM, 4:55.01) and
Valentina Kolytchev (100 breast, 1:13.35).
The Blues close out the fall portion of their schedule when they host the OUA Stratten Division Championship meet, Nov. 23-24. The McGill women, who have won all four meets to date, will have some time off to train and study for the December exams. They return to competition on Feb. 1 for the RSEQ conference's fourth University Cup meet, in Trois-Rivieres, Que.
LINK TO MEN'S MEET RECAP
COMPLETE RESULTS
SOURCE:
Earl Zukerman
Sports Information Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
CELL:
514-983-7012
E-MAIL:
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca
