October 5, 2003-Carleton University Pool

The Ravens varsity swim squad kicked off the season at home versus the Ottawa U Gee-Gee’s today, with the men’s team swimming to victory and the women’s team putting up a good fight despite being outnumbered more than 2:1. The Raven’s men were able to use home field advantage to the fullest, nearly doubling up on the Gee-Gee’s 244-139. The women hung in tough against superior numbers to score 119 points versus Ottawa’s 174. Individual standouts included Keegan Harris and Krista Boegel, both just a fraction of a second away form qualifying for the national championships in the breaststroke events, men’s team captain Trevor McLoughlin with two new best times, and rookie John Mills with a new Carleton varsity record in the 50m backstroke. The Ravens look to build off this momentum when they travel to Guelph, Waterloo, and North York later this month.

October 17, 2003-Guelph, Ontario

Varsity swimming started off its busiest weekend of the season with a bang at the OUA relay meet. Leading the way was the men’s 4X100 medley relay team, winning in a near varsity record of 4:00.09. The women as well had some great performances with three silver medal finishes in the 4X100 medley, 3X200 freestyle, and the 4X100 freestyle relays. Other medal winning efforts were turned in by the men’s 4X50 freestyle, 3X200 freestyle, 3X100 backstroke, and 4X100 freestyle relays.

"Carleton is finally starting to get the respect it deserves from the other coaches and teams." Said men’s head coach John Waring, adding that this indicated "a great new direction for the Carleton Ravens swim team". Competition continues throughout this weekend with duel meets versus Queen’s, Guelph, Waterloo, Ryerson, York and Trent.

October 18, 2003-Guelph, Ontario

Carleton Ravens varsity swimming continued their marathon weekend with strong performances in their tri-meet against Guelph and Queen’s this morning at the university of Guelph. Despite being outnumbered, the women’s team put up a tough fight falling to Queen’s and Guelph by 49 and 78 points respectively. Individually the women did very well though, with both rookie Paola Osario and team captain Krista Boegel capturing two individual golds and coming very close to qualifying for the Canadian Interuniversity National Championships.

On the men’s side, team captain Trevor McLoughlin, as well as veterans Keegan Harris and Brandon Crawford were able to capture individual golds while helping to defeat Queen’s 168-118. The Raven’s weren’t quite up to the task of beating a very deep Guelph Griffons men’s team though, falling 141-159.

"We were right in there until the last two events but Guelph was able to pull it out in the end." Said men’s coach John Waring. Other notable performances were turned in by Brock Clayden: second in the 800m freestyle, despite having technical difficulties with his equipment, and John Mills, second in the 50m freestyle.

October 18, 2003-Waterloo, Ontario

Competing in their second tri-meet of the day, the Carleton Ravens faced off against: Queen’s once again, and Waterloo for the first time this weekend. The women’s team was led by winning performances by Krista Boegel in the 100 and 200 breaststroke and the 1-2 punch of sisters Paola and Luz Osario in the 200 freestyle. Paola was also able to capture gold in the 200 frestyle and 200 butterfly as well. Unfortunately the women’s team again suffered from being outnumbered falling to both Queen’s and Waterloo by 52 points and 38 points respectively.

The men’s side faired much better though, downing Queen’s 167-111, and Waterloo in a nail-biter 141-140. Led by second year veteran Brandon Crawford, with three individual wins, the ravens were able to upset Waterloo in their own pool after great swims by Keegan Harris and a sweep of the sprint backstrokes by rookie John Mills. The Ravens wind up their road trip tomorrow in York against York, Ryerson, and Trent.

October 19, 2003-North York, Ontario

The Carleton Ravens varsity swimming team powered home today, making a clean sweep of their last six duel competitions of the weekend. In a dominant performance by both the men’s and women’s teams, Carleton was able to win handily even after competing in three other meets this same weekend. The women’s squad, led by team captain Krista Boegel with a sweep of the three breastroke events, defeated all comers, only really being challenged by Trent, who eventually fell 209-198. Other strong performances were turned in by Melissa Jeurgensen in the sprint butterfly events, distance and butterfly swimmer Paola Osario, with three wins of her own, and her sister Luz Osario, with a win in the 50m freestyle. The women capped off their strong showing with wins in both the 4X50m medley and 4X100m freestyle relays.

The men had an even more impressive performance with first year backstroke standout John Mills sweeping the three backstoke events as well as leading the 4X50m medley relay and anchoring the 4X100 freestyle relay to victories. Other notables included Keegan Harris in the breaststroke events, Brandon Crawford with two individual wins and perennial tough guy and assistant team captain Brock Clayden with a win in the 400m freestyle.

"We did a good job of battling through some adversity this weekend and refused to ease down when the going got tough" commented men’s coach John Waring, adding "we really came together as a team this weekend and showed a lot of backbone. Everybody did a really good job."

Never ones to rest on their laurels, the team is back in the pool preparing for upcoming duels with Ottawa U and Brock followed by OUA divisionals in November.

November 8, 2003-University of Ottawa pool

The Carleton university swim team competed in their last duel meet of the season today. The women toughed out what has been a difficult season, due to their lack of numbers (often competing against 2:1 numbers advantage), by falling to both Brock and Ottawa U. Individually the women faired much better though, with both team captain Krista Boegel and rookie Paola Osario qualifying for the CIS national championships in the 100m breaststroke and 800m freestyle respectively. Other command performances were turned in by Melissa Juergensen, winning the 100m butterfly, followed closely by Luz Osario, who scored second place in the same event.

The men continued their winning ways by defeating both Brock and Ottawa U in the duel meets. Leading the way once again was Keegan Harris with 2 wins in the 100m and 200m breaststroke. Two separate 1-2 finishes by a combination of John Mills, Brandon Crawford and Trevor McLoughlin in the 100m and 200m freestyle events solidified the points lead for the dominant win over Brock. The relay teams held tough against Ottawa U to bring home the win by a much closer margin of victory; only two points separated the teams once the dust settled with Carleton coming out on top.

Although this marks the end of the duel season for the Raven men and women, the fast swimming is just getting started as the divisional, provincial and national varsity championships are growing ever closer. The championship rounds kick off with divisionals in Guelph November 22-23.

November 23, 2003-Guelph, Ontario

The Ravens proved they were for real this weekend in the Eynon Division Championships. Both the men and women turned in winning performances. Women’s team captain Krista Boegel was victorious in the 100m breaststroke and had other great swims in the 200m breaststroke (2^nd) and the 50m breaststroke (4^th). Backing her up to the very respectable 6^th place finish were strong swims by fellow women’s team swimmers Luz and Paola Osario as well as Melissa Juergensen, all of whom placed top eight finishes to score critical points for the team.

The men had what might be one of the best meets in recent Carleton history. Once again providing the foundation of a strong showing was Keegan Harris. The breaststroke powerhouse was dominant in his specialty stroke, sweeping the 50m, 100m, and 200m while qualifying for the CIS national championships in the 200m and breaking a Raven’s varsity record in the process. Men’s team captain Trevor McLoughlin also had a phenomenal weekend in Guelph. He dropped an incredible amount of time off his 100m butterfly to break 1 minute for the first time ever, capturing the silver medal and missing gold by a mere 2 tenths of a second. Trevor also swam the fastest 50m butterfly in Raven’s history on the medley relay! Brandon Crawford was also able to help the Ravens cause with his third place tie in the 50m breaststroke and other solid top eight finishes in the sprint freestyles. Another Raven able to qualify for the CIS championships was John Mills, who qualified in the 50m backstroke and contributed two second place finishes (50m backstroke and 50m freestyle). The real highlight on the men’s side was the 4X50m medley relay. Mills, Harris, McLoughlin and Crawford combined to not only win the event, but set a new divisional record as well as Carleton varsity record in the process. The same foursome combined to place 3^rd in the 4X50m freestyle relay, where Mills was able to clock the fastest relay split by a Raven ever. Both the men and women now turn their attention to the OUA championships taking place in Ottawa in February. Lots of hard training lies ahead but the future is bright for Raven’s swimming.