News

Bielby continues to shine as McGill swim team finishes second at home meet

Published: 13 November 2011

(PHOTO OF STEVEN BIELBY BY ANDREW DOBROWOLSKYJ)

MONTREAL -- Steven Bielby of Pte. Claire, Que., earned four gold medals as McGill finished second in both the men's and women's divisions of the third Quebec Cup swim meet of the season at the University's Memorial Pool, Sunday.

Originally scheduled to be held in Sherbrooke on Saturday, the event was moved to McGill at the request of the Eastern township-based university, which is in the midst of a prolonged strike of administrative staff.

"I was a little disappointed that our team didn't win either the guys or girls competition overall but we were in second (place) in both which is better than our perfromance in the first Cup meet, when we were third in the girls," said coach Peter Carpenter.

Bielby, who racked up a meet-high 644 points FINA scale and Laval's Genevieve Cantin, who had 677 points and also finished first in four races, were each named male and female swimmer of the meet for the third time this season.

"Steven continues to do well," said Carpenter, in his third year as coach of the team. "He's not traditionally a good in-season swimmer, so it will be interesting to see what this means as the season continues."

Bielby, a 22-year-old electrical engineering senior, won the 200-metre freestyle (1:52.57), the 400 individual medley (4:26.73) and the 100 butterfly (56.24). He also contributed to a win in the 4x100 freestyle relay (3:28.85).

Montreal native Marc-Andre Benoit also had a great meet for the Redmen, winning three gold. The 21-year-old management major, earned first-place finishes in the 50 free (23.87), 4x100 IM (3:52.64) and 4x100 free relay.

The 4x100 IM also included Joseph Toops of Evanston, Illinois and Montrealers Erik Cheng and Michael Luck. The 4x100 free featured Toops and Luck in addition to the aforementioned Bielby.

The Redmen won six of 10 races and were 30 points behind Laval (162) followed by the Montreal Carabins (55), Sherbrooke (4) and UQTR (0).

On the women's side, the McGill Martlets earned 105 points, 20 behind the Carabins (125) with Laval coming in third (88), followed by UQTR (26) and Sherbrooke (0).

Valerie De Broux of Beaconsfield, Que., was the sole Martlet to win gold, claiming the 100 breast in 1:13.23.

De Broux and Miriam Donato (50 breast, 34.08) of Pte. Claire, Que., both qualified to compete at the CIS championships in March. That brings the total number of McGill qualifiers to nine, including Calgary natives Lei Lopez (50 back) and Rayven Overney-Ragan (50 fly), plus Benoit (50 fly, 100 free), Leanne Roach (200 breast) of Riverview, N.B., Pierre-Alexandre Renaud (200 fly) of Laval, Que., Jenn Darling (200 back) of West Vancouver, B.C., and Bielby (400 IM, 100 fly, 200 IM and 200 fly).

The fourth of five Quebec Cup competitions is slated to be held at Universite Laval in Quebec City, on January 21, 2012.

McGILL MULTIPLE MEDALISTS

REDMEN:

Steven Bielby (4 gold)

Marc-Andre Benoit (3 gold)

Michael Luck (2 gold, 1 bronze)

Joseph Toops (2 gold)

Erik Cheng (1 gold, 1 bronze)

MARTLETS:

Rayven Snodgrass (3 silver)

Jennifer Darling (2 silver)

Myriam Donato (2 silver)