Ontario Youth-Junior Championships - ROWs best ever OYJs!

ROW Communications
Thursday, February 15th marked the beginning of the 2023/2024 Championship Meet competition window with the Ontario Youth-Junior Championships held at the Markham Pan Am Centre in Unionville, Ontario. 80 clubs from across the province participated in one of the more challenging championship meets of the season. 

 

Some of the challenges imposed by this competition?
· Just 6 weeks out of our Winter Break
· Very early Long Course (LCM) championship (Athletes have been swimming mostly Short Course up to this point)
· With OSC de-qualification times and relatively quick/tight OYJ qualification times, the number of representatives from each club increased greatly

 

Given the third point, it’s always hard to tell what the dynamic is going to look like at this meet (both winter and summer). This year, the ROW team was made up of 18 athletes (14 boys and 4 girls) which allowed for 4 relay teams competing across the 4 gender/age groups.

With this make-up, the boys saw themselves in a tight battle at the top of the team standings through the entire competition, moving back and forth between 3rd and 5th . Following the team race was particularly exciting as the standings were incredibly close -- and this now marks the highest ROW has placed at an OYJ Championship since its inauguration! Ultimately, a few tough disqualifications landed ROW men in a 5th place team finish, with a combined team finish of 8th place.

 

Here's a quick breakdown of the four-day meet:

 

Day 1 

Started strong with several individual final swims, ROWs first medal of the competition and relay points!

 

Medalists:

  • Beckett S – Boys 13&U 200 Breast – Bronze

Finalists:

  • 100Bk: Lucas, Kentaro
  • 50Fr: Megan, Aris, Joseph
  • 200Br: Beckett, Sebastian, Michael, Devin


Day 2

Continued to build momentum on day 1, with men rising to 4th in the overall standings!

Medalists:

  • Aris C – Boys 13&U 200 Free – Bronze
  • Lucas LB – Boys 15yr 400IM – Silver
  • Devin PW – Boys 16-18yr 400IM – Silver

Finalists

  • 200Fr: Aris, Joseph
  • 400IM: Kentaro, Lucas, Devin
  • 100Fly: Aris


Day 3 

Clawing our way back after a couple tough DQs on Day 2.

Medalists:

  • Lucas LB – Boys 15yr 200 Fly – Bronze

Finalists:

  • 100Fr: Aris, Joseph
  • 200Fly: Ayla, Lucas, Kentaro, Devin
  • 100Br: Beckett, Sebastian, Nic, Edy


Day 4 

On our final day we saw our first gold of the competition, qualifying for the Ontario Swimming Championships!

 

Medalists:

  • Lucas LB – Boys 15yr 200 Back – 1 st – NEW OSC Qualifier

 Finalists:

  • 200IM: Aris, Joseph, Kentaro
  • 200Bk: Lucas

 

OYJ Summary
· Medals – 1 Gold, 2 Silver, 3 Bronze
· 4 different age-group/gender relays
· Team standing – 8th (Men's team standing 5th )
· 1 New Qualifier: Lucas LB – OSCs 

 

Congratulations to all ROW athletes who competed at the 2024 Winter Ontario Youth-Junior Championships. We saw many ups with PBs, medals and new qualification times as well as some tough beats with DQs, 4th place finishes just outside the medals and a few remarkably close to qualifying for OSCs during the last opportunity before the winter entry deadline. The perfect time to promote a WIN or LEARN mentality! Let’s keep the ball rolling, onto the next championship meet!


#GOROWGO #ROWNATION
AJ