Queen’s captures ultimate national titles

Queen’s captures ultimate national titles

By Communications Staff

October 17, 2016

Share

[Gaels Ultimate teams]
The Queen's Gaels women's and men's ultimate teams celebrate their national titles on Sunday in Montreal. (Supplied Photo)

A roundup of Queen's Gaels teams in action over the weekend:

ULTIMATE

The Queen’s women’s and men’s ultimate teams each won the national championship this past weekend, the men successfully defending their title from 2015.

The women started out the Canadian University Ultimate Championship (CUUC) weekend on Saturday with a 13-7 win over Laval and followed up with a 15-8 win over McMaster before dropping a close 11-10 match to Ottawa.

In the quarterfinal on Sunday the Gaels topped Carleton 15-2 and then edged Western 9-7 in the semifinal. In the final against Toronto Queen’s pulled ahead early and didn’t look back taking a 12-7 victory to win the national championship.

The men's team started out with a perfect 3-0 record with wins over McGill, Carleton, and Toronto. After beating Western in the quarterfinal and a tough-fought battle with Laval in the semifinal, the team punched their ticket back to the national championship match where they faced Toronto.

The final marked the fourth time Queen’s and Toronto had met this season, with Queen’s completing the sweep for their second national title in a row.

FOOTBALL

The Queen’s Gaels (3-4) took sole possession of the final OUA playoff spot with a 55-5 Homecoming win over the Windsor Lancers (2-5) on Saturday.

Capacity at the revitalized Richardson Stadium was tested with standing room tickets going on sale earlier in the week to accommodate the sell-out crowd of 8,011. Before the game, the Alumni Parade made its way from Grant Hall to the new stadium.

The late Doug Hargreaves was honoured prior to kickoff with a speech from Principal Daniel Woolf and a video montage. Queen's presented the Hargreaves family with a portrait of the former Gaels coach.

The game ball was delivered by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, the Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell.

Once the game started it was all Queen’s with running back Jonah Pataki scoring a pair of early touchdowns. A rouge and two conceded safeties gave the tricolour a 19-0 lead after 15 minutes.

Quarterback got in the action with a TD pass to Peter Hannon before the Lancers earned their first points of the game with a field goal. Pataki responded with his third touchdown on the next possession, and went into the half up 33-3. At the break, Pataki had already run for 136 yards.

In the second half the Gaels added three more touchdowns, two going to receiver Matteo Del Brocco while Wesley Mann returned his second interception of the game 60 yards for the score.  

CROSS-COUNTRY

It was a historic Homecoming for the Queen’s cross country teams as Claire Sumner won the first 8-km race for a women’s program. The Queen’s-hosted competition is believed to be the first collegiate cross-country meet in North America where both the men and women contested identical race distances. 

Sumner finished in a time of 27:50.91, a second ahead of teammate Julie-Anne Staehli who placed second. Rounding out the top five for the Gaels was Beatrice Cigagna, Taylor Sills in seventh and Shannen Murray in eighth. The Gaels also took the team title with 24 points, well ahead of Western with 31.

On the men's side the Gaels narrowly missed out on a first-place overall finish as Western had 28 total points to Queen’s 29. Finishing second for Queen’s was Eric Wynands in a time of 24:48.94, while teammates Mark Schmidt  and Robert Kanko placed fourth and fifth respectively. Western’s Jack Sheffar took the men’s title in a time of 24:32.56.

WOMEN’S SOCCER

The Queen's Gaels (9-4-1) crushed the Trent Excalibur (2-12-1) 9-0 in the final home game of regular season, with Tara Bartram netting her first CIS hat-trick. Also scoring were Laura Callender, Lauren Winquist, Brittany Almeida, Lidia Bradau, Matija Skoko, and Jenny Wolever.

On Saturday, the Gaels fell 2-1 at home to the UOIT Ridgebacks, with Bartram scoring the lone goal.

MEN’S SOCCER

The Queen's Gaels (5-4-5) fell 2-1 to the Trent Excalibur (4-8-3) in their final home game of the regular season on Sunday. Jacob Schroeter scored for the Gaels.

Friday’s match with the UOIT Ridgebacks was a high-scoring affair that ended in a 5-5 draw. Scoring for Queen’s was Schroeter with two, Chris Wellsman, Andrew Martin, and Sam Abernethy.

MEN’S RUGBY

The Queen's men's rugby (5-1-1) scored a 43-21 Homecoming victory over the visiting Brock Badgers (3-4) to stay undefeated at Nixon Field.

After giving up an early try the Gaels responded through David Williams and Kevin Rush to put the home side ahead 14-7. Brock would then tie the game, but a pair of five-metre runs from Alex Colborne and Michael Douros put the Gaels back out in front. The Badgers added another try as Queen’s held a 24-21 edge at the half.

The second half however was all Gaels as they scored 19 unanswered points with Colborne, Evan Underwood and Angus MacPhail scoring tries.

WOMEN’S RUGBY

The No. 7 Gaels started their 2016 playoff run on Homecoming Saturday with a 60-7 win over the York Lions.

Miranda Seifert wasted no time scoring the first try for Queen’s three minutes in with Nadia Popov kicking her first of five successful conversions. Popov scored a try of her own before Seifert touched down her second of the game at the 29-minute mark. To close out the first half Jordi Di Nardo found the end zone to make it 26-0.

In the second half the Gaels would see tries from Dominique Rumball, Sadie Stephenson, Di Nardo, Seifert, Popov and Emma Faught.

WOMEN’S HOCKEY

The Gaels (1-1) defeated the York Lions (1-1) 3-0 at home on Sunday for their first win of the season.

Scoring for the Gaels was Katrina Manoukarakis with two and Nadia Larocca while Stephanie Pascal got the shutout.

On Saturday, the team opened the season with a 5-2 loss to the Nipissing Lakers. Hailey Wilson and Megan Farrell scored for the Gaels.

MEN’S HOCKEY

The Queen's Gaels (1-1-1) were defeated 4-3 in double overtime by the Nipissing Lakers (1-2) Friday night at the Memorial Centre.

The Gaels got goals from Dylan Anderson, Slater Doggett and Eric Ming.