Provost and Sénéchal-Becker headline Gee-Gees Varsity Awards as Athletes of the Year
The University of Ottawa Gee-Gees announced the varsity award winners on Friday, capping the 2022-23 season by recognizing student-athletes for their work in athletics, academics, and in the community.
Highlighting the Major Awards presented, Cassandra Provost of the women's soccer team and high jumper Thomas Sénéchal-Becker were named the Athletes of the Year, women's rugby team member Claire Gallagher and men's basketball team meber Cole Newton were honoured with the President's Awards, and Brigitte Lefebvre-Okankwu earned the Career Achievement award in recognition of her historic contributions to the women's basketball program.
In addition to the awards below, the Gee-Gees celebrated the over 60 student-athletes who are completing their varsity careers this season, including twelve from the rookie class of 2017 who returned following the cancelled 2020-21 season to complete their sixth season in Garnet and Grey, or their fifth year of eligibility.
Varsity Athletics was also proud to recognize the four programs who captured U SPORTS bronze medals in 2022-2023. In combination, the women's rugby, women's soccer, men's swimming, and men's basketball national bronzes were historic for the University of Ottawa, which had never before had four teams step onto the national podium in the same season.
In addition to the team success, the 2022-2023 Gee-Gees accolades include five U SPORTS individual medals, a gold medal at the Canadian University Rowing Championships, 13 All-Canadians, 34 conference medals won by the swimming, rowing, and track and field teams, four conference major award winners, and two national award winners from the past season, including Dave Heinbuch as U SPORTS Men's Swimming Coach of the Year.
The Gee-Gees also captured OUA championships in women's soccer and men's basketball, and were conference runners up in men's swimming, women's swimming, men's rugby, and women's rugby. A total of eight teams were ranked in the U SPORTS Top Tens with football, women's hockey, and women's basketball joining the conference champions and runners up.
Cassandra Provost was named Athlete of the Year after setting a team record in goals scored and helping to lift uOttawa to its tenth OUA Championship, a FISU Americas gold medal, and a U SPORTS bronze medal. Provost, in her second season of OUA competition, registered 18 goals in the eleven-game regular season and was the leading scorer in U SPORTS. Her 21 total points also set a Gee-Gees team record and she was named the U SPORTS Player of the Year for women's soccer.
An accounting student from Acton Vale, Que., Provost was also a U SPORTS First Team All-Canadian and the OUA East Most Valuable Player and conference First Team All-Star this season, and was the 2021-2022 OUA Rookie of the Year and an Academic All-Canadian.
Fellow Athlete of the Year Thomas Sénéchal-Becker also broke records in his second season in Garnet and Grey. En route to the U SPORTS gold medal in high jump, Sénéchal-Becker recorded the seven best jumps in Gee-Gees history. He established the current team record of 2.17m at the OUA championships, where he earned the conference silver medal.
At the National Championships, the Health Sciences student had a perfect performance, He cleared the heights of 1.89 metres, 2.02m, 2.05m, 2.08m 2.11m, and finally 2.14 metres all on his first attempts. Only one other jumper cleared 2.11, and no one was able to match Thomas at 2.14. Sénéchal-Becker is the first Gee-Gee to ever win a national medal in high jump.
The President's Awards, which recognize outstanding combination of athletic and academic performance, were awarded to Claire Gallagher of the women's rugby team and Cole Newton of the men's basketball team.
Gallagher was named a U SPORTS Second Team All-Canadian at centre in 2022, making her a two-time All-Canadian in her four years in Garnet and Grey. The Health Sciences student from Caledon, Ont., was also named to the RSEQ All-Star team for the second time in her career, after winning the conference Rookie of the Year award in 2018. Gallagher led the Gee-Gees and tied for third in the RSEQ with 66 points scored this season, and was was also named a U SPORTS tournament all-star as Ottawa captured the bronze medal. A three-time Academic All-Canadian, Gallagher held a fall term GPA of 9.50.
Newton was instrumental in the Gee-Gees OUA Championship season, ranking second on the team in scoring with 12.4 points per game. A fourth-year Health Sciences student, Newton ranked sixth in the conference in minutes played and was second on the team in assists with 3.0 per game. He poured in fifteen points in the national quarterfinal win as the Gee-Gees went on to win the national bronze medal. Newton, from Fergus, Ont., is a two-time Academic All-Canadian and held a fall term GPA of 9.75.
Ngozi Mosindi was named the winner of the Gee-Gees Community Engagement Award, following up on her 2022 RSEQ Leadership and Community Engagement Award win. Mosindi is active in multiple initiatives, making an impact with different groups both through rugby and through leadership more generally. She has helped to organize workshops for grade 12 leadership students, hosted a three-part Black Women in Sport Speaker series, and been a member of the team's Task Force for Equity and Diversity.
On the field Mosindi planned and executed development sessions with the rugby team at Heritage College, and has been integral to the implementation of the Gee-Gees Rugby Academy which provides young athletes with the opportunity to develop their potential on and off the rugby pitch, with a focus on character and leadership development through sport.
Stand-out first years Olivia Allen and Jacques-Mélaine Guemeta took home the Rookie of the Year Awards. Allen, a biomedical science student from Holland Landing, Ont., was a U SPORTS All-Rookie Team selection for the OUA Championship-winning Gee-Gees women's soccer team. Her six goals in regular season play tied for 12th in the conference and she added one assist. Allen also scored the gold-medal winning goal for Ottawa at the FISU Americas tournament.
Guemeta was named to the OUA All-Rookie Team in recognition of his excellent play off the bench for the OUA Champions. He ranked sixth on the Gee-Gees in minutes played and was third in three-point shooting percentage, helping him score 7.2 points per game. The civil engineering student from Douala, Cameroon added 3.7 rebounds and one steal per game and contributed double-digit scoring in two of Ottawa's OUA playoff games.
Brigitte Lefebvre-Okanwku's recognition as the Career Achievement Award winner wrapped up the evening. The highly decorated women's basketball senior leaves as the program's second leading scorer and rebounder in program history and was named a U SPORTS All-Canadian for the second time in 2022-2023. Starting in her rookie year of 2017-18, Lefevbre-Okankwu lifted the Gee-Gees to success: she has been the team's leading scorer four of her five seasons while the team has recorded an 82-22 record (.788) and attained a number one ranking in U SPORTS for the first time in program history.
Lefebvre-Okankwu is also a five-time Academic All-Canadian and was the U SPORTS Top 8 Academic All-Canadian in 2020-21, the year before she was named OUA East Most Valuable Player. In 2021-22 she was awarded the U SPORTS Sylvia Sweeney Award for student-athlete community service, and in 2022-23 she was the inaugural recipient of the OUA Women's Basketball Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Award. She was a founding member of the Black Student-Athletes Advocacy Council at uOttawa and serves on the executive committee as secretary. In 2020 she was the Valedictorian for the Faculty of Science as she received her Honours Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Science and Minor in Psychology.
The True Sport Awards were presented to Trinity Lusan of the women's volleyball team, Jade Todd of women's hockey, Anthony Poulin of men's hockey, and Alex McClure of men's rugby. A separate news release will follow detailing their awards.
2022-2023 Gee-Gees Varsity Team Most Valuable Players:
**Years are eligibility years, those with stars were also Gee-Gees team members in 2020-2021
Basketball (m): Guillaume Pépin / 4th year* / Montreal / Marketing
Basketball (f): Brigitte Lefebvre-Okankwu / 5th year* / Gatineau, Que. / MSc in Management (Entrepreneurship)
Cross Country (m): Andre Alie-Lamarche / 4th year* / Ottawa / International Development and Globalization
Cross Country (f): Noemie Beauregard / 1st year / Rockland, Ont. / Nutrition Sciences
Football: J-P Cimankinda / 4th year / Ottawa / Human Resources Management
Hockey (m): Mathieu Desgagnés / 2nd year / Montreal / Finance
Hockey (f): Aurélie Dubuc / 3rd year* / Trois-Rivières, Que. / Human Kinetics
Rowing (m): Pascal Morimanno / 2nd year* / Fredericton, N.B. / Economics and Political Science
Rowing (f): Kennedy Burrows / 2nd year / Parry Sound, Ont. / International Development and Globalization
Rugby (m): Evan Roy / 2nd year / Ottawa / Social Sciences
Rugby (f): Ketsia Kamba / 3rd year* / Burlington, Ont. / Communication and Sociology
Soccer: Cassandra Provost / 2nd year* / Acton Vale, Que. / Accounting
Swimming (m): Allen Zheng / 4th year* / Ottawa / Health Sciences
Swimming (f): Lauren Shearer / 5th year* / Kitchener, Ont. / Master's in Human Kinetics
Track and Field (m): Thomas Sénéchal-Becker / 2nd year / Ottawa / Health Sciences
Track and Field (f): Katie Manor / 1st year / Ottawa / Psychology
Volleyball: Grace McKale / 3rd year* / Cold Lake, Alta. / Biopharmaceutical science
For winners of the competitive club awards, please click here.
For past winners of varsity annual awards, please consult this link.