LONDON, Ont. - On the final day of competition, the Marauders found the podium for a final three times before clinching the fourth overall spot in the team competition.

Cameron Johnsen, one of the leaders of the team, adding two more medals to make his weekend total five. Specializing in the breaststroke, Johnsen swam the second lap of the 4 x 50m medley relay for the Marauders. With a team time of 1:41.43, Johnsen, Colin Campbell, Bijan Ziaian and Cyrus Drabik finished second to earn McMaster a silver medal. The maroon and grey was just 1.58 seconds off of the Toronto Varsity Blues' gold medal time. Just two races later, the Thunder Bay local was back in the water for the men's 50m breaststroke. Touching the wall in 28.02, the veteran earned the bronze medal. Over three days, Johnsen landed on the podium in each of his three individual breaststroke competitions. His final race of the weekend was the 200m individual medley, ending with a 9th place finish (2:06.88).

Also competing in the men's 50m breaststroke were Josiah Terejko (28.63) and William Clarke (28.87) who finished in 5th and 10th place, respectively. Tarejko was also the top-performing Marauder in the 100m freestyle, placing 11th overall (52.10). Omar El Aref just missed the podium in the 200m backstroke with a time of 2:05.11. In the longest race of the weekend - the 1500m freestyle - Max Angove (16:09.70), Campbell (16:09.95) and Kevin Ireland (16:27.75) completed the distance event with a 5-6-10 finish.

The Marauders ended the Championship in fourth place in the men's team standings with 512 points. The Toronto Varsity Blues earned their 19th straight conference title with 790.5 points, the host Western Mustangs finished in the silver medal position with 726 points and the Waterloo Warriors claimed the final podium spot with 604 points.

On the women's side, rookie Naeva Scott Bouris, continued to impress in her first OUA Championship. The second swimmer in the Marauders' 4 x 100m freestyle relay lineup, Scott Bouris had the second fastest split for McMaster. The maroon and grey (Scott Bouris, Heather Aylward, Andie Lloyd and Chelsea Zhou) earned the bronze medal. The Victoria local also led the Marauders in the 800m freestyle, the longest event of the women's competition. The first-year student touched the wall in 9:00.60 for a 5th place finish while teammate, Maeve Bailey was seven spots back in 12th.

In the 200m backstroke, Claire Halford (2:20.37), Sydney Londergan (2:20.69), Erin Anderson (2:22.13) and Erika Ing (2:23.01) had a 9-10-11-12 finish for McMaster. Aylward, Zhou and Michelle Wang were the top finishers for the Marauders in the 100m freestyle, finishing in 8th, 10th and 11th place, respectively.

The Varsity Blues women's squad continued their swimming dominance, finishing first with 1207 points. The host Western Mustangs took the silver medal with 777.5 points and the bronze-medalist Guelph Gryphons finished with 478 points. McMaster just missed the podium in fourth spot with 428 points.

The top swimmers from across the province, including a number of Marauders, will now represent their programs at the 2023 U SPORTS Swimming Championships from February 23-25 in Victoria, B.C.

FINAL TEAM STANDINGS

Men's:
Toronto – 790.5
Western – 726
Waterloo – 604
McMaster – 512
Guelph – 227.5
Brock – 190
Carleton – 181
Queen's – 180
Laurier – 173
York - 129

Women's:
Toronto – 1207
Western – 777.5
Guelph – 478
McMaster – 428
Waterloo – 339.5
Queen's – 144
Brock – 129
Carleton – 122
Laurier – 103
York – 36