News

Bielby a beacon of golden light as Redmen swimmers capture meet in Quebec City

Published: 21 January 2012

(Steven Bielby photo by Andrew Dobrowolskyj)

QUEBEC CITY -- McGill's Steven Bielby of Pte. Claire, Que., won three gold medals and a silver to earn swimmer-of-the-meet honours for an unprecedented fourth time in as many Quebec Cup meets, at Laval's Centre PEPS, Saturday.

McGill, ranked No.5 in the CIS Top 10, took six of 16 events to finish first of a half-dozen teams on the men's side with 156 points. Sixth-ranked Laval was second with 146, followed by Montreal (57), Sherbrooke (10), UQTR (5) and UQAC (3).

In the women's division, the Montreal Carabins finished first with 135 points, followed by Laval (131), McGill (95), UQTR (16) and Sherbrooke (6).

Bielby, a 5-foot-8, 155-pound electrical engineering senior, finished atop the podium in the 400-metre freestyle (3:57.95), the 200 individual medley (2:05.16) and the 4x50 freestyle relay (1:35.58). He was second in the 200 butterfly (2:04.14) and was the top scorer in the meet, accumulating 632 points on the FINA scale to edge out Laval's Pascal-Hugo Caron-Cantin by just four points.

Teammate Marc-Andre Benoit, a local Montrealer, collected three gold medals as well, winning the 100 freestyle (52.05 seconds), leading off the 4x200 free relay (7:40.24) and was part of the aforementioned 4x50 free, which also included Tyler Manning-Dahan of Rosemere, Que., and Joseph Toops of Evanston, Ill. Benoit was also third in the 50 fly.

Pierre-Alexandre Renaud, a McGill sophomore from Laval, Que., won the 200 fly (2:02.78) and anchored the 4x200 free, along with Patrick Mazurek of Toronto and Hector Hernandez of West Bloomfield, Mich. Renaud placed second in the 400 free and sixth in the 200 IM.

The Martlets were led by gold-medal performances in two events, the 4x50m freestyle (1:50.20) and the 4x50m medley relay (2:01.27).

The freestyle quartet was composed of freshman Lei Lopez of Calgary, junior Sophie G de Tonnancour of Brossard, Que., sophomore Rayven Snodgrass of Calgary and Laura Mendonca, a sophomore from Pte. Claire.

The medley relay included sophomore Jennifer Darling of Vancouver, B.C., plus Mendonca, as well as Montrealer Sophie Overney-Ragan and G de Tonnancour.

With one event remaining in the RSEQ's five meet schedule - at Trois-Rivieres on Feb. 11-12 - the Redmen lead the Quebec conference with 61.1 points, just ahead of second-place Laval (57.8) and have a legitimate chance to capture the conference championship for the first time since 2003. The Rouge et Or will be gunning for their fifth straight men's title. Stay tuned!

MEN's STANDINGS FROM LAVAL MEET: