National Championship Preview: Twenty Gee-Gees Swimmers At Nationals in Victoria

The Gee-Gees swim team is looking to build on its best-ever results at a conference championship and a contingent of twenty swimmers will represent the Garnet and Grey this week at the U SPORTS Swimming National Championships. The championships are being held in Victoria, B.C. and run from Thursday to Saturday with finals each evening.

Live results will be available online here, and a free webcast in English will be available on CBC Sports, with a free French webcast on USPORTS.Live. 

The twenty swimmers represents the largest group of Gee-Gees to head to the national championship since head coach Dave Heinbuch took over the program in 2013-14. The last time that uOttawa sent over 20 swimmers to a nationals was in 2011, when 26 student-athletes travelled to Calgary. With stronger numbers this year, the Gee-Gees are looking to improve on seventh place finishes in both the men's and women's team standings from 2019's nationals, which were both program best-ever results.

Ottawa was ranked no. 5 and no. 9 in the men's and women's national Top Tens last week, which was the final poll of the season. Nine Gee-Gees men won individual medals at the RSEQ Championships, while four women stepped onto the podium in individual events. The relay teams will be racing for the podium after taking RSEQ gold in the men's 4x50 and 4x100m freestyle relays and the demanding women's 4x200m freestyle. A medal in the relays would be a huge step forward for the program, which has not won a relay medal at nationals since 1975. 

To step onto the relay podium, the 4x200m women's squad will need to overtake the host uVic Vikes as well as the Toronto Varsity Blues, who have times within reach just above Ottawa in the best times of the season. However, the men enter the competition with the second fastest 4x50m free relay time and the third fastest in the 4x100m event. 

Davide Casarin will be chasing Gee-Gees history as he enters the nationals with six medals at the national championships, which he won in his two previous appearances. That ranks him second in program history, behind Montana Champagne who captured eight national medals in his career. Casarin holds two gold medals, three silver, and one bronze, and is the defending national champion in the 400m freestyle and the 200m butterfly. 

Delphine Vandal is attending her fifth national championships and is looking for her first national medal. She finished fourth in the 800m freestyle at last year's nationals, and enters this year's event with the fourth-fastest seed time in the 400m free – an event she claimed RSEQ gold in.

Nine Gee-Gees will be making their first appearances at the National Championships, of which seven are first-year university swimmers.

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Gee-Gees Roster for 2020 U SPORTS Nationals:

Women: Talea Claassens, Mackenzie Finkbeiner, Alina Juuti, Morgan McCartney, Lauren Shearer, Dana Sherrard, Abby Simms, Delphine Vandal, Adelle Yamashita-Ball

Men: William Barrett, Louis Bertrand, Thomas Boyd, Davide Casarin, Jamie Demers, Judson Nickerson, Aleksandar Plackoski, Nathan Schiffmann, Conor Smyth, James Steele, Noah Wagner.