Women’s Golf

The women’s golf team came through in a big way on Monday. They won a silver medal in the team competition at the Gryphon Invitational Golf Tournament at the Cutten Club in Guelph.

The medal is the first ever for the women’s golf squad. The second place finish was awarded to U of T by virtue of a third place tiebreaker. The top two players from Guelph had the same scores as the top two Blues, who were Jen Beattie and Beth Evans.

Jessica Shih was the third-lowest scorer for the Blues and was one shot lower than the third place golfer from Guelph. This allowed U of T to take the silver. When the top two golfers of two schools are equal after they have each finished their round, then the school with the next best golfer wins the tiebreaker.

U of T and Guelph both had scores of 165 from their top two golfers.

The next tournament for OUA schools will take place at Sutton Creek in Windsor on Friday, September 24 at 1:05 PM. Then on September 26, the ladies will travel to Kingston to play in the Queen’s Invitational

-Matt Somers

Women’s Fastpitch

Off to an impressive start, the women’s fastpitch team only lost one match over the weekend. The Blues defeated Guelph, Queen’s and Carelton, but were unable to catch Ottawa, as they went 3-1.

The Blues are now sole owners of first place in the OUA Central division. Guelph is second in the division and York is third.

Six Blues had one hit or more in the first game against Guelph. Sherry Williams had three hits in the game, Jenny Reibeling pitched a shutout and the Blues won 5-0.

Scores in the other victories were: 2-0 over Queen’s and an 11-2 assault on Carelton’s pitching. The other game was a 4-3 loss to Ottawa, who beat U of T in last year’s playoffs.

This year the team is being led by rookie head coach Wendy Dobbin. She is set to be the head coach of Team Ontario’s women’s softball team at the 2005 Canada Summer Games.

Before starting their regular season, the women hosted and won the 2004 University of Toronto Varsity Challenge Tournament, which pitted the Blues against teams from Ajax, Port Perry, Newmarket and Clarkson, among others. The Blues beat Port Perry in the final by a 6-2 score, with Charlsie Searle picking up her first win of the tournament.

This weekend the team will play four games in Waterloo. They will take on Windsor, York and Western on Saturday afternoon and then take on host Waterloo on Sunday.

The women’s fast pitch club has been given “Varsity Club” status, which allows them to use U of T’s logo and a host of other benefits.

-MS

Paralympic Games

Success has come in heaps for Canadians at the Paralympic Games in Athens over the last few days. This country was able to win 12 during Wednesday’s events alone.

Kirby Cote won the gold medal in the 100m freestyle event for visually impaired athletes. This brings her gold medal total to three in these games, as she also won gold in the 100m butterfly and the 400m freestyle event.

Donovan Tildesley and Chelsea Gotell have also won medals in the pool. Donovan took home a silver medal and Chelsea captured a bronze in the women’s 100m freestyle event.

Other medalists on Wednesday include: Chantal Petticlerc, Chelsea Clark, Chelsea Lariviere and Jason Dunkerley. Andre Beaudoin, Jeff Adams, Jessica Matassa and Karen Brain round out the list of medallists on Canada’s most successful day of the games.

The 24 medals won by Canada at these games puts us in seventh position. China holds a large lead, with 70 top-three finishes.

Of interest are the number of athletes who have tested positive for banned substances at the games. One of these was Canadian medal favourite Earle Connor, who has had great success in the 100m, 200m and 400m sprints. Connor was the winner of the Laureus Award as the best athlete with a disability in the world.

The banned substances that were found in Connor’s system were nandrolone and increased amounts of testosterone.

The games will run until September 28, 2004 in the same city that hosted the 2004 Summer Olympiad.

-MS

Women’s Rugby

The Blues took no prisoners on Sunday, as they soundly defeated the Waterloo Warriors by a score of 32-5. The game was played on a beautiful Sunday afternoon on Back Campus.

Heather Moyse was the standout player for U of T on this day, as she powered her way to four tries on the afternoon. She also had all 15 points in the first half of the game, as the Blues took a 15-0 lead into the recess.

Big games are nothing new to Moyse, who was named a Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) all-star last season. She currently leads Ontario University Athletics (OUA) in scoring.

Nathalie Bendavid was among the other scorers for the Blues on this day. Fiona Boyd was the only Warrior who was able to score on the tenacious defense that the Blues possess.

The team is now 1-0 on the season. They will next take to the Back Campus field on Sunday, where they will take on the Western Mustangs, the defending OUA champions.

Western will act as host for the 2006 and 2007 CIS Women’s Rugby Championships.

-MS