Swimming

The Gee-Gees closed their day of racing at the Ontario Cup, concluding their final meet until OUA Championships in February. And it was rookie Sherry Patel (Mississauga, Ont.) that stole the show for the Gee-Gees with her stunning performances in all her events.

Patel took home a gold medal in the 50m butterfly yesterday, but added to that a silver in the 100m butterfly (1:04.35) and bronze in the 100m breaststroke (1:14.89).  Patel also finished seventh in 50m and 100m freestyle, and 10^th in the 50m breaststroke, her lowest placing of the weekend; quite a feat considering Patel raced in six events at the Ontario Cup.

“A lot of people had really great races this weekend, especially considering we just came off training camp,” said Patel after the meet, “Coming into OUA’s tapered, the team will do really well and hopefully we’ll have more CIS qualifiers. “

Third-year Adam Best (Ottawa, Ont.) dominated in his usual forte tonight, coming out with gold in the 100m backstroke and a bronze in the 50m backstroke.

“It was a great meet for the Gee-Gees,” said head coach Claude-Yves Bertrand, “We head home now for our final preparation before OUA and the CIS championships. All the hard work is done, it is now time to fine tune the small technical details, get some serious rest, and start getting excited to swim fast.”

“I am extremely impressed with our performance throughout the entire weekend,” said men’s team captain Bernard Joosten (Ottawa, Ont.) who clocked in at 30.88 in the 50m breaststroke for his highest finish of the weekend at fourth. “We had phenomenal races throughout each session, constantly stepping up and beating the swimmer next to us.”

“This weekend reflected the hard work the team's been going through since September, a lot of good and strong swims,” said second-year Jacob Sammon, “We are finally ready to race fast and get more CIS qualifiers at OUAs and show them what uOttawa is made of!”

The OUA Championships will be held at Laurentian University February 9-11, 2012. Stay tuned to www.geegees.ca for full coverage of your uOttawa swimmers!

Select uOttawa Results:

100m backstroke:

Women: 5^th – Taylor Moore – 1:06.71

Men: 1^st – Adam Best – 58.69

100m butterfly

Women: 2^nd – Sherry Patel – 1:04.35

50m backstroke

Men: 3^rd – Adam Best – 28.67

100m breaststroke

Women: 3^rd – Sherry Patel – 1:14.89

200m individual medley

Women: 5^th – Eryn Weldon – 2:25.54

Men: 4^th – Jose Baylon – 2:12.03

50m breaststroke

Women: 10^th – Sherry Patel – 36.01

Men: 4^th – Bernard Joosten – 30.88

400m freestyle

Women: 8^th – Nicole Lachance – 4:32.28

50m freestyle

Women: 10^th – Sherry Patel – 27.69

Men: 4^th – Adam Best – 24.79, 10^th – Chris Cormier – 25.49