MONTREAL – Mats Baradat, a native of France, has been named swimmer of the year to lead a McGill sweep all four major awards for the second straight year in voting for the RSEQ laureates in men's swimming.
 
Baradat, a 21-year-old economics freshman, was also selected the league's rookie of the year. This is the third time in as many seasons that McGill has received the top swimmer honours. Baradat was preceded by Pablo Collin in 2022-23 and Clement Secchi in 2021-22, all three from France.

Other RSEQ honours went to Malachy Belkhelladi, a 20-year-old psychology junior from Montreal, who won the league's leadership and citizenship award, and to Peter Carpenter, who was named coach of the year for the fourth consecutive season.
 
Rounding out the glitter, 10 gold medalists from the conference champion McGill Redbirds, qualified for first-team all-star honours. Two others – who won silver at the championship meet – earned a berth on the second all-star squad.
 
The first team included Baradat and Belkhelladi, along with teammates Hazem Issa, Erik Linseisen, Tristan Govier, Bruno Dehem-Lemelin, Mathieu Ionescoux-Tremblay, Pablo Collin, Robin Domingo and Artiom Volodin.
 
McGillians on the second team were Steve Frantskevich and Alex Younes.
 
Mats Baradat hails from Hyères, located in the Côte d'Azur, on the Mediterranean coast. The long-distance specialist was triple golden at the conference championship meet, winning the 400m freestyle (3:52.48), the 1500m free (15:30.09) and was part of the winning the 4x200 free relay (7:25.46).

His athlete of the year award is based on FINA points scored from an individual's three best swims, in different disciplines, over the course of the entire season. In Baradat's case, his three best swims were all from this past weekend, in the 200 free (745 pts), the 400 free (761 pts) and the 1500 free (754 pts). The FINA points that he scored in those three races were a combined 2,260, which was one point more than the total achieved Ottawa breaststroker Hugo Lemesle.
 
"It was literally unbelievable. This award has never been so close in the points, as far as I know," said Carpenter.  "But Mats has been lurking in the shadows, swimming well all year."

Malachy Belkhelladi, a freestyle specialist, won the RSEQ leadership and citizenship award based on a number of factors. An Academic All-Canadian, he also made the Principal's Student-athlete Honour Roll with a stellar 3.95 grade-point average (out of 4) in McGill's faculty of Arts. He has served as a volunteer for the past two years with the Montreal chapter of St. John Ambulance, which provides first aid and emergency medical services to the community. For the past 18 months, he has also served as a volunteer instructor with the Montreal chapter of SWAM (Swimming With A Mission), a student-run, non-proft organization that provides water-safety and swimming instruction for children with disabilities. Over the last four months, he has also volunteered with the Montreal chapter of Shelter Movers, a charitable organization that offers free moving and storage services to individuals and families fleeing domestic violence.

Carpenter was appointed aquatics manager and head coach of the McGill swim team in September, 2009 and is now in his 15th year (14th season). The 49-year-old native of Pointe Claire, Que., is a two-time recipient of the U SPORTS Fox 40 men's coach-of-the-year award, winning in 2018 and 2020. He has also merited similar honours 10 times at the RSEQ conference level, winning five of them in the women's category and five more in the men's division. Carpenter has guided McGill to five league titles in each gender, in addition to four consecutive combined titles.

"I couldn't have done this without my assistant coaches Savannah King and Nikki van Noord, who have made a massive difference to our program," said Carpenter. "Savannah, who directs the distance program, was particularly pleased with "King's court", the nickname given to our distance swimmers.  It was a major highlight to see the team's 800 freestyle record come off the board this season. This is something that she had been working towards for the last two years especially and to have our oldest remaining record beaten by not one, but two of the ladies was incredible.

"And Nikki is in her first year coaching after being a member of the team for six years, including two as captain. She works primarily with the sprinters and the men really flexed their muscle in that 4x50 free relay breaking the RSEQ record at the league championships. To have four of our sprinters win five gold medals each, was really gratifying for her."

 

2023-24 RSEQ MEN'S SWIMMING MAJOR AWARDS

SWIMMER OF THE YEAR

Mats Baradat, McGill

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

Mats Baradat, McGill

COACH OF THE YEAR

Peter Carpenter, McGill

LEADERSHIP AWARD

Malachy Belkhelladi, McGill

FIRST-TEAM ALL-STARS (gold medalists)

Hazem Issa, McGill

Malachy Belkhelladi, McGill

Erik Linseisen, McGill

Hugo Lemesle, Ottawa

Tristan Govier, McGill

Mats Baradat, McGill

Bruno Dehem-Lemelin, McGill

Alym Kurji, Ottawa

Mathieu Ionescoux-Tremblay, McGill

Pablo Collin, McGill

Evan Aguiar-Winter, Ottawa

Colin Shearer, Ottawa

Robin Domingo, McGill

Artiom Volodin, McGill

SECOND-TEAM ALL-STARS (silver medalists)

Ethan Fast, Ottawa

Noah Wagner, Ottawa

Brendan Van Herk, Ottawa

Jean-Félix Pelletier, Montréal

Adrien Cara, Laval

Tyler Blais, Sherbrooke

Marcus Sainton, Laval

Juan Pablo Collazos, Laval

Thomas Lafontaine-Giguère, Montréal

Jakob Mbobela, Ottawa

Jacob St-Germain, Montréal

Nils Bongers, Laval

Théo Druenne, Laval

Steve Frantskevich, McGill

Hugo Janvier, Laval

Alex Younes, McGill

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