U SPORTS RECAP: Lemesle, Beaudin-Bolduc on the podium in strong Day 1 showing for Gee-Gees in Victoria

The Gee-Gees swimming team logged a strong first day of competition at the 2023 U SPORTS Championship in Victoria, BC on Thursday.

Headlining the evening's finals were two podium finishes for Ottawa, with Hugo Lemesle taking home a silver medal in the 50m breaststroke (28.00) and Nathan Beaudin-Bolduc (4:00.19) clinching a bronze medal in the 400m freestyle.

After an outstanding qualifying effort in the morning, the Gee-Gees swimmers advanced to finals on 24 occasions, presenting a key opportunity to take advantage of collecting points in the evening.

At the end of the first day of action, the Gee-Gees men's team is holding second place overall with 321 points, while the women's team finished with a strong standing in ninth place with 78 points.

"I'm so happy that the depth of the team showed through," said head coach Dave Heinbuch. "We had a pile of events tonight and that's why we're in second and ninth place, they had back tonight and swam really well in finals. I couldn't be happier."

Lemesle, in his second year from Nice, France, took home his second national medal in the 50, breast, after taking home bronze last season in Quebec City. 

"It was great," said Lemesle joyfully on reaching the podium again. "I was happy to race that well and be able to finish ahead of swimmers that were in front of me last year. It was really good to see."

Beaudin-Bolduc reach the national podium for the first time in his first season with the Gee-Gees after previously swimming at Laval.

"I think it's huge when everyone sees that we can compete with the other teams at that level," said Heinbuch on the two podiums. "Winning medals is really important, especially when Nate won his in the 400 free, that was a big lift for the team. Hopefully they'll give us a boost for tomorrow."

In all, the Gee-Gees were just out of reach of the podium twice with outstanding efforts to finish in fourth in the men's 50 freestyle (Allen Zheng – 23.28), and 100m butterfly (Alexandre Perreault – 55.22).

The Gee-Gees logged good points finishes in the men's 100m backstroke with Evan Aguiar-Winter finishing sixth in the A-final (57.03) and Ryan Jensen winning the B-final (57.83). Meanwhile, the team also scored solid points on the women's side with Lauren Shearer (50m breaststroke – 33.13), Amy Meharg (400m freestyle – 4:28.77), and Abigail McKinley (100m butterfly – 1:04.63).

The Gee-Gees capped the night off with valiant performances in the 400m medley relays with the women's finishing sixth with a time of 4:23.47 and the men in fifth with a time of 3:45.46, smashing a previous RSEQ record by four seconds. 

The team will return to Saanich Commonwealth Place for day two of championship action from Victoria.

For full results and heat sheets for the championship, click HERE. Preliminaries and finals will be streaming live on CBC Gem and the CBC Sports' YouTube channel.