Molson Weekend Summary Feb. 20

Road Weekend for Memorial

It was a busy weekend with Sea~Hawks teams travelling in swimming, wrestling, basketball and men’s volleyball. The swimmers performed well in their final meet at the CIS Championships at the University of Toronto. Six men’s wrestlers were at UNB where Matthew Kippenhuck and Jon Smith successfully qualified for the CIS Championships in Calgary on March 5th. The men’s volleyball team ended their season at the League Tournament with a pair of losses against Dalhousie and UNB. The basketball teams competed against St. FX in Antigonish. The women split against the X-Women while the men dropped a pair to the first place X-Men.

Swimmers save the best for last at nationals

The Memorial swim team headed to the CIS Championships at the University of Toronto with a strong contingent of four swimmers looking to swim their way to personal bests against a deep field of the most talented swimmers in the country. Over the year, when most other people are sleeping, the Memorial swimmers have put hundreds of hours of training in, with countless early morning swims. They also mixed things up weekly with some 5:30 a.m. floor hockey games that served as cross training while helping build them into a close-knit group that push each other in training and in competition.

The Sea~Hawks team headed into the weekend having put together a fine season. Under the tutelage of head coach Brad Hutton Memorial was represented on the male side by the winners of the last two Butler Trophy’s awarded to the Memorial varsity athlete of the year. Sophomore David Forbes won the award in 2008-09 and was a threat to qualify for the consolation final in the sprint freestyle events. Senior Tim Rusted won the award in 2007-08 and has been a cornerstone of the swimming team for the past five seasons. Rusted’s best event is the 1500m freestlye, an event he has, quite impressively, participated in at the last four CIS Championships. On the women’s side two qualifiers represented Memorial for the first time since 2005 as second year swimmers Kelsie Rogers and backstroker Leah Tomblin would make the trip to Toronto. All swimmers would compete in four events each.
On weekend where the University of Calgary won both the men’s and women’s overall championship for the first sweep in the school’s history the Sea~Hawks performed their best on the biggest stage.

Day One
On Thursday, day one of the championships, Memorial was represented in four events with all four athletes in action. Rusted was the first in the pool for Memorial finishing 40th in the 200m freestyle with a time of 1:58.04. Rusted shaved nearly a second off his time from last season’s CIS Championship setting a new personal best.

Leah Tomblin, a second year from St. John’s, beat her own Memorial record time in the 50m backstroke with a 31.19 time, a personal best, that put her in a three-way tie for 29th place.

Kelsie Rogers, a native of Wabush, touched the wall in 31st in the 100m butterfly with a time of 1:07.59, two hundredths of a second better than her time at the AUS championships.

Forbes opened the meet in the 50m butterfly, which he finished in 34th with a time of 57.91.

Day Two

Day two was the busiest session of the meet for the Sea~Hawks with swimmers in six events.

Rusted participated in two events, the 50m freestyle and the 400m freestyle. In the 50m free Rusted and Forbes both swam with Forbes finishing 19th and Rusted in 48th. Forbes raced a blistering time of 23.58, besting his time at last year’s CIS and this year’s AUS. Rusted touched the wall in 25.11, a very respectable time for the distance swimmer, showing his versatility. In the 400m freestyle Rusted finished 41st in 4:13.19. Forbes also raced in the 50m butterfly, coming in 24th with a time of 25.78, a little better than his time at AUS, but off his pace set at last year’s CIS.

For the women Rogers and Tomblin were busy with two events each. Both swimmers were in the 50m butterfly, finishing closely. Rogers was 36th with a time of 30.25 while Tomblin was 39th in 30.75, a personal best. Rogers also swam the 50m free, placing 25th with a fine time of 27.22. Tomblin was back in the pool for the 100m backstroke where she finished in 28th with a time of 1:06.78.

Day Three

On the third and final day of the championships each Memorial athlete would participate in one event. Forbes raced his way to the consolation final placing 11th in the preliminaries of a deep field in the 100m freestyle with a fantastic season-best time of 51.02. In the evening session Forbes raced to finish 14th in the finals. His finals time was 51.12.

Rusted finishes decorated varsity career
Rusted ended his fine varsity career on Saturday in his best event, the 1500m freestyle. The Conception Bay South native finished in 31st with a time of 16:40.54. The gruelling kilometre and a half swim is Rusted’s speciality. Rusted cut nineteen seconds off his AUS time and ended his varsity career having competed in four CIS Championships, showing his versatility in the pool competing in short and distance events. He also made quite an impact in the community as the co-chair of the Memorial Athlete’s Council, a group of varsity athletes that is involved in a number of community outreach projects.

Hutton commented on Rusted’s contribution to the program by saying, “Rusted has been the main building block for the Sea-Hawks swim team over his career with his great dedication and leadership. He has trained 9-10 times a week for the past five years, never missing workouts and leading his lane and encouraging his teammates through each workout. At meets he has been a strong presence, guiding his younger teammates and racing with heart. Rusted has seen the Sea-Hawks Swim Team improve each year and his involvement will continue to be felt as our younger athletes motivate and push their teammates, following in his footsteps.”

Tomblin also finished strong with a 34th place finish in the 200m backstroke with a time of 2:25.09. Rogers finished her first CIS performance with a 43rd place finish in the 100m freestyle.

With three athletes returning a number of other Memorial swimmers with the potential to qualify the future is very bright for Memorial swimming.

Full 2009-10 CIS Championship results

Two wrestlers qualify for CIS Championships

Six members of the men’s wrestling team were in Fredericton with the goal of qualifying for the CIS Championships at the University of Calgary on March 5th. The top two finishers in each weight class would gain a berth at CIS. The Kerri Ann Evely coached Memorial team would perform well with no wrestler getting pinned during the entire meet on their way to a third place finish overall. Matt Kippenhuck and Jon Smith both earned the right to represent Memorial at the CIS Championships with second place finishes in the 68kg and 130kg weight classes respectively. All of the other Memorial representatives wrestled their way to third place finishes, losing their matches by points. The other wrestlers were Jeremy Spence, Robbie Zadra, Ryan Nichols, and Ronald Earle.

Men's Volleyball team ends season at League Tournament

The men’s volleyball ended their 2009-10 season in Fredericton this weekend with the League Tournament. The Sea~Hawks are building a competitive nucleus of talent but face the challenge of playing in a three team AUS that includes two formidable opponents in Dalhousie and UNB.

Saturday Dalhousie 3 Memorial 0 (boxscore)

On Saturday afternoon the Sea~Hawks played the Atlantic powerhouse Tigers who have won the last twenty-three conference champions. The size and power of Dalhousie was once again too much for the ‘Hawks as the Tigers won in straight sets 3-0. The set scores were 25-13, 25-10, 25-11.

Gander native Max Burt led the Tigers with 7 kills while Nathan Tilley led Memorial with 6 kills.

Sunday UNB 3 Memorial 0 (boxscore)
On Sunday morning the Sea~Hawks played the Varsity Reds. The last times the teams met was February 6th at the Field House when the ‘Hawks gave UNB a good match before losing 3-1. On Sunday Memorial played well in spurts but could not close out a set on the UNB home court. The final was 3-0 in favour of UNB. Set scores were 25-20, 25-19, 25-20.

Drew Stephens finished his season with an impressive performance. He had 10 kills in the loss. Julio Fernandez led the way for UNB with 13 kills. Brad Jolliffe had 8 digs and setter Brad Pitcher had 22 assists.

The Sea~Hawks finish their season with a record 1-17. UNB finished in second with a record of 9-9 while Dalhousie clinched first in the AUS with a record of 16-2.

Rollercoaster weekend for women's bball

Saturday St. FX 81 Memorial 54 (boxscore)
The women’s basketball team travelled to Antigonish this weekend having already clinched second place in the AUS with a record of 12-6. St. FX also were locked into the fourth position with a 12-8 record so both teams would be in a situation where they would be looking to prepare themselves for the playoffs on the weekend.

On Saturday evening it was all St. FX as the Sea~Hawks looked out of sync from the opening tip to the final buzzer in their worst performance of the season in a 81-54 loss. Ashley Stephen was the star for St. FX, stuffing the scoresheet with 21 points, 17 rebounds and 6 assists.

Memorial turned the ball over early and often with a season-high 36 turnovers. They were also badly outrebounded 52-33 despite having a bigger team. St. FX outhustled the ‘Hawks all night, coming up with 28 offensive rebounds, including ten by Stephen.

The leading scorer for the Sea~Hawks was Robyn O’Rielly with 11 points. The halftime score was 44-30 X-Women.

Sunday Memorial 71 St. FX 63 (boxscore)
Supporters of Memorial basketball know that women’s basketball coach Doug Partridge does not tolerate getting outhustled, even if the result has no impact on the standings. With such a poor effort on Saturday it was no surprise that the players rallied for a better effort on Sunday against the X-Women.

The Sea~Hawks came out with a better effort in every facet of the game. Vicki Thistle played effectively, leading the team with game-high 22 points. Ally Forsey also stepped up inside to put up 17 points and 10 rebounds. After getting outrebounded badly on Saturday the Sea~Hawks did a better job of limiting the X-Women to one shot. The ‘Hawks also did a good job of containing Stephen, limiting her to only 12 points and 6 rebounds, after she exploded on Saturday night.

The ‘Hawks finish their season with a 13-7 record as they head into a week of fine tuning in preparation for the AUS Championship in Cape Breton next weekend. Memorial and the rest of the AUS will be underdogs, looking to upset a talented Cape Breton team on their home court. However, Coach Partridge will be happy to see his team rebound from the lopsided loss Saturday, to win a close game on Sunday as they head into playoffs.

Solid Sunday effort for men's basketball in loss to X-Men

The men’s basketball team headed into Antigonish for a tough matchup against the first place St. FX X-Men, who came into the weekend with a record of 17-1, including an undefeated 8-0 at home.

Saturday St. FX 82 Memorial 48 (boxscore)
On Saturday night the X-Men used full court pressure to build an early lead against a Sea~Hawks team that looked out of sync. The X-Men continued to build the lead with Memorial unable to mount a comeback because of cold shooting and an inability to keep St. FX off the offensive glass.

St. FX won with a balanced scoring attack, with Jeremy Dunn netting 15 points and pulling down 11 boards to lead the way.

Memorial did not play nearly as well as they are capable. Jason Shepherd led Memorial with 15 points.

Sunday St. FX 91 Memorial 76 (boxscore)
Much like the women’s team it appeared that the men would be in a position to show their pride on Sunday with a much better effort. With the competitiveness that Peter Benoite and the players, led by Jason Shepherd, possess, a better effort was expected on Sunday. The Sea~Hawks showed a different attitude right from the opening tip. The team battled for rebounds and hit timely shots. Most importantly, they did a good job of handling the St. FX pressure defense, breaking the press to get several layups throughout the game. However, St. FX are not ranked second in the country for no reason, as they used their athleticism to gain separation in the second quarter on their way to a 91-76 victory.

Memorial were down by a single point at the end of the first quarter but St. FX used an effective transition game to build a 54-38 halftime lead.

Christian Upshaw was the player of the game for X with 23 points and 9 assists.

For Memorial veteran Mark Woodland played his best game of the season, breaking out for 20 points, 5 assists and 4 steals off the bench. Robbie Habib also shot well with 15 points. Ante Samodol played very well despite battling foul trouble after picking up three fouls in the first half. Samodol showed his versatility for the ‘Hawks, at times carrying the ball for Memorial. He finished with 13 points and 9 rebounds. His inside presence was missed during the St. FX second quarter run.

Though Peter Benoite is never happy losing, he has to take solace in the way his team responded on Sunday. They played with one of the top teams in the country on their court for three of four quarters with both Ante Samodol and Jason Shepherd battling foul trouble. Removing the second quarter, when St. FX went on a big run, the game was played to a tie. However, that is the game of basketball, and if you are going to upset the X-Men it takes a full forty minutes. Nonetheless if was a spirited effort for the Sea~Hawks.

The Sea~Hawks will end their season against Acadia in Wolfville next weekend.