Jones leads way at oua's

Date and Time :     9 February, 2013 — 11:16 am

Game Recap:

TORONTO, ON - The Lady Vees and Voyageurs were in the pool this past weekend at the OUA Championships in Toronto.  Despite getting off to a slow and tentative start on the first day of the Championships, the teams settled in and had a number of strong performances, led by Orangeville native Emily Jones.

The first day of finals saw the Lady Vees 4x200m freestyle relay team maintain their 7^th place seeding, missing out a move into the top 5 by 0.68 seconds.  The men entered the night seeded 6^th and, despite bettering their seed time, slipped to 7^th.  The highlight of the night came from Jones in the 100m backstroke as she had the fastest final 50 meters in the field to earn bronze.

On day two, Jones once again led the way, just missing out on a podium finish in the 200m backstroke as she touched the wall in 4^th.  She reclaimed a spot on the podium on the third and final day as she knocked over half a second off of her qualifying time in the 50m backstroke to grab her second bronze medal of the championships.  Jones was joined in the finals by rookie swimmer James Clendenning (Sudbury, ON) who finished with a 16^th place in the 100m butterfly.

The relay teams also had a strong final day as the women’s 400m freestyle team of Jones, Leah Derro (Sudbury, ON), Taylor Corelli (Sault Ste Marie, ON) and Jessica Pothier (New Liskeard, ON) bettered their seed time by eight seconds to finish in 6^th.  The men’s team of Jake Meyermann (New Liskeard, ON), Daniel Juhasz (Brampton, ON), Matthew Wormington (Orangeville, ON) and Clendenning also finished 6^th in the 400m freestyle.

The teams each finished the Championship with a top-10 placing as the women finished in 9^th with 159 points, just 2 behind Queen’s, while the men finished in 8^th spot with 117 points.

Coach Phil Parker was happy with how the team recovered from their slow start and was especially pleased with Jones’ performance.  'Emily stood up and led by example at this year's OUA swim champs.  This meet is a huge confidence builder for the double bronze medalist heading into the CIS National Swim Champs in Calgary two weeks from now.  We were expecting a medal in 50m backstroke but the 100m medal was a great accomplishment and a result of three hard years of work and dedication from Emily.  The rest of the team swam really well and got better as the meet went on.  The relay teams had some great swims and for James to get to a final in his first OUA’s was fantastic.'

Jones will now prepare for the CIS Championships next week as she will be the lone Laurentian swimmer in the pool.