Blues’ swimming captain Liz Warden, for the second time this season, been named Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) and Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Female Athlete of the Week.
This is the fifth time this season that a Varsity Blue has earned the “double.” Along with Warden’s two CIS & OUA honours, U of T men’s soccer standout Kern Juman, women’s hockey goaltender Ali Houston and swimmer Peter Szaflarski have also been named CIS and OUA Athletes of the Week during the 2002-03 season.
Warden, the 2002 Howard Mackie Award winner as CIS Female Athlete of the Year, had a golden performance this past weekend at the OUA Swimming Championship at Brock University.
The national team member and four-time All-Canadian earned six gold medals (four individual, two relay) to lead the women’s swimming team to their third straight conference crown. The Varsity Blues finished with 789.5 points, 187 points ahead of their closest competitors, the McMaster Marauders. For her effort, Warden was named OUA female swimmer of the meet for the second straight year.
With the four individual victories (100 metre and 200 metre freestyle, 200 metre individual medley (IM), 200 metre breast), Warden ends her OUA swimming career undefeated. She won gold 27 times in 27 OUA Championship races as a Varsity Blue. Her time of 2:00.77 in the 200m freestyle established a new OUA record, surpassing former team-mate Jen Button’s time of 2:01.51 set in 1999. Warden also helped her team to victory in the 400m medley and 400m freestyle relays.
Early last week, the fifth-year arts student returned to Canada after a successful stint with the national team on the World Cup circuit. In Stockholm, she earned a silver medal in the 400-metre IM with a personal best of 4:38.69, finishing second to Olympic gold medallist and current world record holder Yana Klochkova of the Ukraine (4:36.33).
Photograph by Simon Turnbull
