ICYMI: a highlight reel of this year’s Athletics Banquet.
The first major award of the night, Team of the Year, went to the women’s hockey team, who won their first-ever OUA Championship this season in a 2-1 overtime win against the University of Toronto’s Varsity Blues. The team also took fourth place in their first-ever U SPORTS National Championship.
The Imprint-sponsored Coach of the Year award went to Tara Savoie, head coach of the men’s golf team. “I just feel very honoured to be a part of the Warrior family and the Warrior athletics,” she said, expressing her appreciation to men’s golf assistant coach Fred Wilder for helping her out during her first year, “and then the team: the players have been fantastic, and really welcoming and worked really hard… in having a fantastic season.”
Savoie became head coach last March and led men’s golf to the OUA Championship for the first time in eight years, where team members Zachary Burt and Jack Deighan took home individual OUA gold and silver medals, respectively.
This year’s Male and Female Rookies of the Year, sponsored by WUSA, went to Kevin Zhang from men’s swimming and Faith Mitchell from women’s hockey. Zhang clinched a U SPORTS bronze medal in the 200m butterfly and debuted at the 2023 Pan American games in October with a fifth-place finish in the men’s butterfly, while Mitchell made it to the OUA all-rookie team and aided the ascent of the women’s hockey team to their significant heights this season.
Fifty-four Warriors from 18 teams were recognized as OUA all-stars, with six Warriors (five athletes and one coach) recognized as U SPORTS All-Canadians and Major Award winners.
Tyson Hergott took home the Male Athlete of the Year. Hergott plays defense for the men’s football team and was honoured earlier in the evening as one of its Team MVPs, having also received recognition from OUA and U SPORTS for a stellar season. “It’s a tremendous honour,” he said, expressing appreciation for the university and the athletics department as well as “an endless amount of people I could thank,” including his team, coaches, friends, family, girlfriend, and physiotherapeutic and medical supports.
The honour of Female Athlete of the Year went to Celia Markovinovic, who was also recognized earlier as the Team MVP for women’s track and field, and received the overall Judy McCrae Warrior Impact award, which recognizes athletes who excel in academics, athletics, and community service. She was previously recognized as Female Rookie of the Year in 2022.
“First and foremost I’m incredibly happy that I could bring this award back to the track team for another year,” she said, before congratulating her fellow nominees. “Female athletes did incredible things this year, I’m so honoured to be a part of that.”
