THIS WEEK IN COUGAR ATHLETICS
Rams Football – The Rams (3-5) took a 35-31 come-from-behind victory over Alberta to claim the fourth and final Canada West playoff spot, thanks in large part to rookie quarterback Noah Picton who earned CIS Offensive Player of the Week honours after throwing for 467 yards and tallying one touchdown through the air and another on the ground. Picton engineered a six-play, 85-yard game-winning drive with just over five minutes to play that was capped by an 11-yard major from Atlee Simon. The Rams will head to Calgary this weekend to meet the 6-2 Dinos in a Canada West semifinal game.
Cross Country (Men’s CIS Ranking: No. 10) – Matt Johnson leads the men’s team into this year’s CIS Championships as the defending Canada West individual champion and having won all four races this year for the Cougars. The women’s team is also sending a full five-runner squad led by veteran runner Avery Westberg. Hosted by Memorial University at the Pippy Park Golf Club in St. John’s, N.L., the women’s race starts at 12 p.m. (NST) with the men’s race to follow at 1 p.m.
Women’s Basketball – The Cougars opened their Canada West schedule last weekend with a pair of road setbacks at Victoria, losing to the Vikes by scores of 89-69 and 80-64 as they open the season 0-2 for the first time since 2006. The Cougars host their home openers this weekend against Manitoba (0-2) at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport with tip-off scheduled for 6 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday.
Men’s Basketball – The Cougars challenged No. 10-ranked Victoria in both contests last weekend in their first conference games of the season, but eventually fell 72-63 on Friday and 78-63 on Saturday. The men’s team will also hosts its home openers this weekend, as they’ll entertain a Manitoba Bisons team which enters the weekend at 2-0 after wins over Trinity Western. Game time is set for 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday at the CKHS.
Women’s Hockey – Coming off a bye week, the Cougars (1-3-3-1) will host Lethbridge this weekend at The Co-operators Centre with games scheduled for 7 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday. The Cougars enter the series in sixth place in the Canada West standings with 10 points, while Lethbridge (1-0-7-0) is tied with Mount Royal for seventh.
Men’s Volleyball – The Cougars earned their first win of the season as a part of a split last weekend at Thompson Rivers, sweeping the WolfPack on Friday before losing in four sets on Saturday. The Cougars (1-5) will do battle with Mount Royal this weekend, which sports a 5-3 conference record on the season after sweeping two matches against the Saskatchewan Huskies last weekend. Match times are set for 2 p.m. on Saturday and 3:30 p.m. on Sunday.
Women’s Volleyball – The Cougars (1-5) lost a pair of road matches at Thompson Rivers last weekend, including in a five-set marathon on Friday night. The U of R returns home this weekend for two matches against Mount Royal (2-6) as the teams play a rare Saturday/Sunday series at the CKHS. First serve is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday.
Men’s Hockey – The Cougars (1-9-0) earned their first win of the season on Saturday with a 2-0 victory over the UBC Thunderbirds that saw Tyler Henry score both goals for the Cougars and Lucas Gore stop 28 shots in net for the shutout. Regina will head to Lethbridge this weekend for a pair of games against the 2-8-0 Pronghorns, who beat the visiting Manitoba Bisons twice last weekend. Game times are scheduled for 7 p.m. (MST) on Saturday and 3 p.m. on Sunday.
Women’s Wrestling – Rookie Dakoda Sinclair was the U of R’s top finisher last weekend, as she collected a fourth-place finish in the 85-kilogram event at the Simon Fraser University Clan International. Teammate Vicki Busch also competed at the Clan International and finished sixth in the 55-kg. The women’s team will compete in the University of Winnipeg Open this weekend.
Swimming – The Cougars competed at the Odlum Brown Colleges Cup over the weekend at UBC. Daniel Gomez (1500-metre freestlye) and Chris Myers (50-metre and 100-metre breaststrokes) both qualified for the Canada West Championships on the men’s side, while Eyad Albassiouny, Michael Andersen, and Brent Hill each posted season-best times after qualifying for the conference meet back in October. For the women’s team, Jacee Kaczmar hit conference standards in three different events while Eva Madar hit Canada West marks in the 50-metre and 100-metre freestyle and scored season-best times in the 50-metre and 100-metre butterfly.
(Courtesy Braden Konschuh)
