RECAP: Relay medal is historic third of the day for Gee-Gees at U SPORTS

The relay bronze is the first ever national medal for the Gee-Gees in the men’s 4x200m...

February 22, 2020

The Gee-Gees swimming team made program history on Day Two of the 2020 U SPORTS Championships in Victoria B.C. by winning three medals, including a bronze by the men's 4x200 metre freestyle relay team to cap off the night.

Davide Casarin, who led off for the relay squad, also won the 400m freestyle for his third career national gold medal and second-year Gee-Gee William Barrett won his first national medal, a bronze in the 200m breaststroke.

Casarin is now the most decorated Gee-Gees swimmer at the National Championships in program history as he has collected nine medals (3 gold, 4 silver, 2 bronze) in his three years as a Gee-Gee, passing Montana Champagne who finished his career with eight national medals.

The relay bronze is the first ever national medal for the Gee-Gees in the men's 4x200m, and only the second relay medal in team history at the national championships with the last one coming in 1975. Loius Bertrand and Thomas Boyd followed Davide Casarin, with Nathan Schiffmann as the anchor bringing home the time of 7:34.34.

"It's fantastic – it's a really hard relay to swim at the end of a long day. When you win a relay medal that shows that you have the depth on the team to compete at this level," said Gee-Gees head coach Dave Heinbuch.

"We had two really good splits in the middle: Louis and Thomas, and that's what got the medal for us," Heinbuch continued. "Those rookie guys came in and were right on their best times. The goal for the team was to win a medal and they bought in."

Ottawa finished one second back of second-place Calgary, with Schiffmann holding off challengers from Laval, McGill, and Toronto at the wall. The same Gee-Gees foursome had taken silver in the event at the RSEQ Championship.

Casarin was sensational in his second straight 400m national championship swim, leading from start to finish and growing his lead to a comfortable three seconds by the midway point of the race. He finished a full second before a charging Laval swimmer with a time of 3:54.59. Louis Bertrand also swam in the A Final, finishing seventh overall.

For Barrett, Friday started with a new Gee-Gees team record in his prelim swim where he broke the short course record which had belonged to Connor Michie since 2015. In the final, the second-year Gee-Gee was in a three-way race for silver over the final 25 metres.

The Gee-Gees had two swimmers in the women's 400m freestyle final as well, with Delphine Vandal placing fifth and Adelle Yamashita-Ball eighth. Judson Nickerson made his first A Final in the 200m butterfly, swimming to a seventh place finish.

uOttawa had sixteen individual finals swims on Day Two and the team now sits sixth in both the women's and men's team standings heading into the final day of competition.

Day Three at the 2020 U SPORTS National Championships from the Saanich Commonwealth Place pool begins with preliminaries at 10 a.m., followed by the distance freestyle finals at 3:30 p.m. with the remaining event finals starting at 6 p.m. For live results and scheduling, visit this link.

A free webcast in English will be available on CBC Sports, with a free French webcast on USPORTS.Live.

Gee-Gees Day Two Results:

*indicates time lower than seed time

Women's 400m Freestyle (Finals – Long Course)

5. Delphine Vandal – 4:22.57

8. Adelle Yamashita-Ball – 4:25.06

14. Mackenzie Finkbeiner – 4:27.90

24. Alina Juuti – 4:32.56

Men's 400m Freestyle (Finals – Long Course)

1. Davide Casarin – 3:54.59

7. Louis Bertrand – 3:59.55

15. Nathan Schiffmann – 4:04.80