CIS championship meet on deck.

Justin Dunk

Photo Credit: Jamie MacDonald

The captain led the way for the Guelph Gryphon men’s swim team as they finished fifth out of 11 teams that competed at provincial university swim championships.

“The team did fairly well. We lost a few swimmers that had a lot of points for us last year. The rookies definitely stepped up when they needed to,” said second-year Gryphon, Ben Roberts. “I think Coach was surprised.”

Roberts tallied four medals over the three-day meet, three gold medals coming in the 50m backstroke, 200 and 400m medley relays and one silver medal in the 100m backstroke event.

“I guess it was very motivating not only for the medals, but for my achievements in times,” said Roberts. “I made the best times in both the 100 and 50 back [stroke races] when I won my individual medals and the relays were a huge success.”

In particular, the men’s 400m medley relay was arguably the best event of the championships for the Gryphons. The four-man team of Roberts, Matt Stephenson, Will Wright and Troy Baxter captured gold in an OUA record time of 3:42.67.

“You come out of that and you just have a sense of pride,” said Roberts.

Guelph’s other men’s relay gold came in the 200m medley relay with Roberts, Stephenson, Wright and David Nowacki beating the Western team by six one hundredths of a second.

Wright picked up bronze in the 50m freestyle, grabbed two silver medals in the 50 and 100m butterfly and hit gold in the 100m freestyle event. The Gryphon men also picked up a bronze medal in the 200m freestyle relay event.

Roberts believed having the meet in their home pool gave the team an advantage.

“It was way louder than other meets. Being where you train all the time really gives you some sort of a ‘home court’ advantage. It was a great feeling. The gold pool is one of the fastest short course pools in Canada because of its uniform depth.” said Roberts. “I went in very confident for sure.”

Derrick Bush stepped up to the surprise of even his own teammates to have a solid meet performance for the men’s side.

“He threw down some really good times in the 200 back and 50 back. He really brought his ‘A’ game. We were very impressed to see that,” said Roberts.

On the women’s side for Guelph, a big medal threat certainly did not disappoint.

“I was quite happy,” said fourth-year Gryphon star, Chantique Payne. “My times were a little bit better then I expected them to be.”

Payne led the charge for the women’s side, collecting four medals. She swam to gold in the 50 and 100m butterfly events, grabbed a silver medal in the 100m freestyle and a bronze medal in the 50m freestyle race.

“My goal was to try and get as many points for the team as possible,” said Payne.
Alisha Harrichan contributed to the women’s medal haul with two bronze medals, one each in the 100m and 200m butterfly events. As a team the women improved on last years OUA championship finish.

“Last year we were seventh, so we were hoping to definitely move up from that,” said Payne. “We were just hoping to move up from seventh which we did and I think we were pretty happy with the results.”

Second-year Gryphon, Carolyn Michon, normally a breaststroke racer, stepped in to race the free style leg and help the Guelph women to a CIS qualifying time in the 4x100m medley relay.

“This is my fourth-year and that is the first time we have qualified a relay for CI’s,” said Payne. “She [Michon] finished it off with us. We couldn’t of done it without her.”

The Gryphon men and women, who have qualified, will turn their full attention to the Canadian Interuniversity Sport Swimming Championships which run in Calgary, AB from Feb. 24-26.

“This year we have four, possibly five girls going to CI’s,” said Payne. “Our goal is always to stay top ten in the country.”

The Gryphon men will have a large contingent competing in Calgary.

“This is the biggest team that we’ve taken, as far as I know, in the past eight years at least,” said Roberts. “We have 13 or 14 people going overall.”

Payne will be looking to continue her individual success at CI’s.

“It makes me nervous to think about. It’s going to be tough,” said Payne. “I would love to get a double gold at CI’s.”

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