McMaster well represented at Canada Summer Games
Full speed ahead for McMaster athletes at the Canada Summer Games, which open in Sherbrooke Friday. From left to right: Connor Darlington, Mohammed Eldah and Taylor Brisebois are just some of the bright lights competing this year.
Our national colours will be red, white and maroon at this year’s Canada Summer Games.
Held every two years since 1967, the Canada Games is the largest multi-sport competition for young athletes in the country. This year, the summer edition (there’s also a winter version) will be contested in Sherbrooke, Que. from Aug. 2-17, and several McMaster student-athletes are representing their home provinces.
The Canada Games alternate between winter and summer sports and bring together competitors from every region. The Sherbrooke games are being held from August 2nd to the 17th.
The McMaster men’s and women’s volleyball teams have a total of seven athletes representing Ontario this summer.
Playing for Team Ontario on the men’s side are Alex Elliott, Austin Campion-Smith, Jori Mantha, new recruit Brandon Koppers and transfer student Andrew Kocur, who joins the University after a year at UC-Santa Barbara. Head coach Dave Preston has been to the Canada Games twice as Team Ontario coach in 1993 and 1997, and expects his players to have an amazing experience. “The two times I was at Canada Games are still so fresh in my mind and are a career highlight for me,” says Preston. “Those guys are going to have a tremendous time and the benefits to our program when they come back to Mac will be immeasurable.”
Making the cut for the Team Ontario women’s squad are McMaster students Taylor Brisebois and Rebecca Steckle. Mac coach Tim Louks says his players have earned a great opportunity to play the best players from across Canada in their age group. “Those kinds of matches against those types of players will offer the best competition they could see and should be a fantastic experience,” says Louks.
McMaster swim coach Andrew Cole also has great memories of the Canada Games, as he won a gold medal swimming for Nova Scotia in 1981 and was head swim coach for New Brunswick in 1993 and 1997. “The Canada Games are the country’s best vehicle for developing athletes that want to compete at the international level,” Cole explains. “It gives them valuable experience and the motivation to pursue the next level.”
Cole has tapped into his east coast roots to search for new McMaster student-athletes, and two of those Atlantic imports — Mohamed Eldah and Conor Gillespie-Friesen — will be representing Nova Scotia at the Games.
Both Eldah and Gillespie-Friesen will be starting their second-year in the fall after solid freshman campaigns swimming for Mac. They may be teammates at school, but Eldah is competing as a swimmer while Gillespie-Friesen is using his talents to compete in the triathlon.
Coach Cole will also be cheering for a member of Team B.C., as Surrey native Olivvya Chow will be representing her home province before arriving in Hamilton this fall to study and swim for McMaster.
With swim recruits coming to the University from coast to coast, Cole is excited about his program’s growing reputation as a destination for high level competitors.
In athletics, McMaster’s rising sophomore Connor Darlington will represent Ontario in the 5,000M run. The 5,000 is a new distance for the Whitby native, who has been a fixture at both the 800 and 1,500M distances.
University track coach Paula Schnurr is another former Canada Games participant, who ran for Ontario in 1985. Schnurr says the provincial team berth for Darlington is his first major competition appearance. “This is huge for Connor because it’s a new event for him and he has been training very hard,” he says. “It’s a great reward for all his hard work, and I think he’ll be looking to medal. It’s also great preparation for our men’s cross country season where we hope to win a CIS medal this year.”
Darlington will be joined by one of his McMaster teammates on Team Ontario, as Dundas’ own Austin Forbes will compete in the triathlon. Forbes will go toe to toe against fellow McMaster student Reid Burrows, who will represent his home province of New Brunswick in the triathlon before donning a maroon singlet in September. Mac runner Blair Morgan, named as an alternate to the Ontario triathlon squad, will compete in the event of illness or injury.
The fact that four McMaster athletes, the swimmer Gillespie-Friesen and the runners Forbes, Morgan and Burrows, are all at the Canada Games as triathletes shows the strong bond between the Marauder swim and track teams and the impact both programs and their cooperative approach are having on the Canadian triathlon landscape.
McMaster has one more athlete competing in Sherbrooke as Annie Foreman-Mackey is part of Team Ontario’s road race cycling team. While cycling is not a CIS sport, Foreman-Mackey did spend two seasons as a member of the Marauder swim team before making the switch to cycling.
Having multiple athletes from several provinces attend the Canada Summer Games is extremely gratifying for McMaster athletic director Jeff Giles, who firmly believes in the department’s mission of cultivating human potential.
“The Games bring together the best and brightest of the country’s young athletes, and we’re very proud of all the Marauders selected to represent their home provinces,” says Giles. “The fact we have athletes from across Canada bringing their talents to McMaster tells me we are doing something right and we plan to keep raising the bar to provide the best student-athlete experience available.”
