York Lions swim team competes in provincial championship

Several of the province’s top swimmers will gather at the Montpetit Hall Aquatic Centre in Ottawa this coming weekend for the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) swimming championship. Among the participants at the meet will be 12 members of the York Lions swim team.

Leading the way for the Lions is rookie swimmer Viktor Verblac, who has already qualified for the Canadian Internuniversity Sport (CIS) championship in three events: the 200-metre backstroke, 200-metre individual medley and 200-metre butterfly. He will be swimming in four individual events this weekend as well as three relays.

Also swimming for the Lions men are Omar Dallal, Luis Elliott, Jean-Philippe Gregorio, Mina Mekhail, Jeremy Moore, Adrian Tantalo, Richard Tse, Adam Vieira and Giancarlo Volpe. Frances Jones and Eden Levinsky will be representing the women’s team.

The University of Toronto Varsity Blues are the defending OUA champions on the men’s and women’s side. The women have won eight consecutive crowns while the men have claimed the past five titles. York has never won an OUA team championship.

The complete schedule for the meet is as follows:

Friday, Feb. 6
8am to 10am – Warm-up
10am to 1pm – 200m freestyle, 200m back, 100m  breast, 100m fly, 50m back, 400m IM, 50m freestyle
4pm to 6pm – Warm-up
6pm to 9pm* – Finals: 200m free, 50m back, Awards, 100m breast, 100m fly, Awards, 400m IM, Awards, 4 x 100m medley

Saturday, Feb. 7
8am to 10am – Warm-up
10am. to 1pm – 50m breast, 400m free, 50m fly, 100m back, 100m freestyle, 200m breast, 200m butterfly
4pm to 6pm – Warm-up
6pm to 9pm* – Finals: 4 x 50m free, 400m free, Awards, 100m back, 100m free, Awards, 200m breast, 50m fly, Awards, 4 x 200m freestyle

Sunday, Feb. 8
10am to 11am – Warm-up
11am to 12pm – Timed Final 800m / 1,500m (seeded over 17)
12pm to 1pm – Warm-up
1pm to 5pm* – Finals: 4 x 50m medley, 200m fly, 200m IM heats, 800m / 1500m (seeded 9 to 16), Awards, 50m free, 800m / 1,500m (seeded 1 to 8), 200m back, 50m breast, Awards, 4 x 100m free, Final Awards Presentation

* Finish times are approximate..