Gee-Gees at Swimming Canada Olympic Trials

The Gee-Gees had six representatives at the Swimming Canada 2020 Olympic Trials at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre this week. Adelle Yamashita-Ball, Lauren Shearer, William Barrett, Jack Haycock, and Alexandre Perreault joined alumni Montana Champagne at the five-day event.

Champagne captured a national silver medal in the 200m butterfly and was the busiest Gee-Gee, competing in four events.  

In the 200 fly final, Champagne raced 2016 Olympic team member and Canadian record-holder Mack Darragh, and pushed hard particularly in the early going. Champagne finished with a time of 1:59.34, comfortably ahead of the third place finisher.

Champagne also finished sixth in the 100m fly, eighth in the 400m individual medley, and fifth in the 200 IM. 

Lauren Shearer competed in both the 100m and 200m breaststroke events. She narrowly missed advancing to the finals in both distances, placing eleventh in the prelims. The 200m event was particularly close for Shearer who clocked in with a time of 2:40.16, within .5 seconds of reaching the top ten.

Jack Haycock, a first-year Gee-Gee, also swam both the 100m and 200m breastsroke. Representing London Aquatic Club he placed fifteenth in the 200 prelims and 19th in the 100m prelims.

Alexandre Perreault competed in the 100 meter fly and advanced to the final by placing tenth in prelims. In the final he moved up to seventh place. The event winner, Joshua Liendo, set a new national record in the prelims.

William Barrett, representing the Guelph Marlin Aquatic Club, placed fifteenth in the prelims of the 100m breaststroke.

Adelle Yamashita-Ball swam the 800m freestyle, finishing in ninth place with a time of 9:08.04. With the distance events using time trials, Yamashita-Ball swam in the morning but was faster than two athletes who swam in the evening final.