Big weekend for Guelph Gryphons at championship games

Gryphons’ current success and looking ahead

This past weekend brought excitement to many as our women’s hockey, men’s hockey, and track and field teams took part in vital competition at both the provincial and national levels.

The U Sports track and field championships began Thursday in Winnipeg, where the Gryphons went in with very high expectations. In addition to having won the U Sports national title in 2018, both the men’s and women’s teams were ranked first in the country prior to this year’s tournament. An impressive 22 medals were earned between the two teams over the course of the three-day tournament, 10 of which were gold medals. Of those gold medals, seven were won on the final day of the tournament. It is safe to say the Gryphons were dominant at the University of Manitoba, as they took two championship banners home to Guelph.

In terms of hockey, both the men’s and women’s teams played in their OUA championship games on Saturday, March 9. The women were up first, and took to home ice at the Gryphon Centre for an afternoon contest against the University of Toronto Varsity Blues. It was a dramatic victory for the Gryphons, coming back from being down 2-1 after two periods with one goal from Guelph’s Claire Merrick and two goals from Toronto’s Kassie Roache. Guelph came into the third period with a vengeance, and scored three unanswered goals coming off the sticks of Katie Mikkelsen, Kristen Jay, and Merrick again. A 4-2 Gryphons victory earned Guelph its third McCaw Cup in four years, and a chance to play the Manitoba Bisons this Thursday in the U Sports quarter-final game in Charlottetown, P.E.I.

Later that day, the Gryphons men’s hockey team took on the Queen’s Gaels in Kingston for the 108th Queen’s Cup. The outcome was not the best, with the Gryphons falling 4-1 to the Gaels. The lone goal for Guelph came from Marc Stevens in the second period to tie it, but the Gaels scored three in the final frame to win the Queen’s Cup. While U of G may have lost, our men’s team secured the fourth seed in the U Sports Cavendish Farms University Cup, where they will take on fifth seed Saskatchewan Huskies this Thursday in Lethbridge, Alta.