On Mar. 6 and 7, Western University hosted the annual Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Figure Skating Championships at the East Elgin Community Complex in Aylmer, Ontario. In attendance were nine teams from universities that are part of OUA, including Waterloo Warriors, Guelph Gryphons, and Toronto Varsity Blues. At the OUA Championships, each team sends up to four skaters to compete in each of the 14 different events over the course of the two days and depending on the placement of the skater(s) in each event, they can earn points for their team.
Coming off a severe loss at the OUA Winter Invitational Competition, the Warriors were confident they could improve their individual scores and overall placements for the Championships. On the first day of the competition, Jocelyn Wong competed in the Women’s Gold Freeskate event. She skated a beautiful solo to Josh Groban’s “You Raise Me Up,” earning a season’s best score and placing fifth, which earned two points for the Waterloo Warriors. The Warriors also earned season’s best scores in nearly every event of the day including Women’s Novice Short Program, Star 10 women’s Freeskate, Novice Dance Fours, Short Dance and Senior Silver Similar Dance. By the end of the first day of the competition, the Western Mustangs were leading with 47 points, the Toronto Varsity Blues were second with 39 points, and the Guelph Gryphons were third with 26 points.
On day two, the Warriors continued to earn their season’s best scores in many events including Senior Similar Pairs, Open Solo Dance and Fours Freeskate. The competition ended with the Synchronized Skating event, which is the event that the Warriors had trained extremely hard for throughout the season. With a strong foundation and high team spirit, the Warriors skated a fun and entertaining program to Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” They placed eighth and earned season’s best score with a four point technical base-value score improvement which is what they been working hard at improving since the Winter Invitational Competition. The Toronto Varsity Blues reached the podium in 12 of the 14 events, earning their third consecutive OUA Championship win with an overall score of 88 points. The Western Mustangs were a close second with 84 points and the Brock Badgers slid into third with 48 points.
