It is perhaps appropriate the University of Victoria is hosting the Canadian university rowing championships Saturday and Sunday on Elk Lake.
Career two-time Olympic medallists Avalon Wasteneys and Caileigh Filmer, silver medallists with the Canadian women’s eight at the 2024 Paris Summer Games, are just the latest in a long line of Olympic-medallist alumni to come out of the Vikes program over the years.
Twenty teams are contesting the university nationals with the two-time defending champion UVic Vikes women looking for the three-peat. The Vikes men, third last year, are after their first national championship since 2021 but with high hopes after UVic’s Giancarlo DiPompeo won silver and Vikes Quinn Storey, Connor Attridge, Jesse Harold, Victor Lefebvre, Samuel Ree and Sascha Jansen-Rudan placed fourth over the summer at the 2024 world university championships in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The Vikes women who won world university medals in Rotterdam were Danica Ariano, Mikaela Holthuis and Gabrielle Keiser.
Saturday’s qualifying races in the Canadian nationals were time trials, with the top-seeded crews advancing to Sunday’s finals on Elk Lake.
The rest of the wrap-up in a busy weekend for UVic athletes:
RUGBY: The Vikes women’s rugby team, with 2024 Paris Olympics silver-medallist Carissa Norsten, defeated the Queen’s Gaels 17-14 in the U Sports national semifinals Friday in Charlottetown. The UBC Thunderbirds beat the Ottawa Gee Gees 47-17 in the other semifinal to set up the all-Canada West final Sunday in PEI. It is the Vikes’ second-consecutive berth in the national championship game. The Thunderbirds, meanwhile, feature two-time Rio 2016 and Paris 2024 Olympic-medallist Charity Williams and Claremont Secondary grad Adia Pye, who scored two tries each in the semifinal win over Ottawa.
FIELD HOCKEY: Five-time defending-champion UVic went undefeated with clean sheets in pool play this weekend at the U Sports national women’s field-hockey championship tournament in Toronto with 2-0, 5-0 and 3-0 wins, respectively, over Waterloo, PEI and York. The Vikes go for the national championship six-peat when they play York Sunday in the final.
SOCCER: The Vikes women’s soccer team, led by Canada West MVP Ruby Nicholas, made the conference final but lost 3-0 to the UBC Thunderbirds on Saturday in Calgary. The Vikes reached the final with a 1-0 win over the host Calgary Dinos on a goal by Taiya Scorey in the conference semifinals Friday. It was UVic head coach Tracy David’s 200th career victory in her 23rd season on the Vikes bench.
The Thunderbirds, who beat Trinity Western 1-0 in the semifinals, and the Vikes both advance to the U Sports national championship tournament next weekend in Halifax, N.S.
