U of R basketball teams sweep series, swim team makes history

The University of Regina men’s basketball team continued with their winning ways over the weekend, tying a school record, while the women’s team continued to assert their own dominance in the standings.

The Cougars men’s team was able to sweep the weekend series in Regina against the previously unbeaten Lethbridge Pronghorns to run their winning streak to seven games. The team has now tied the longest win streak in the program’s history, with a record first set back in the 1997-98 season and matched in the 2005-06 season.

The men’s team was able to win the match-up Friday after a layup by Alex Igual with just six seconds remaining, to give the Cougars a 79-77 win.

Brian Ofori has been one of the team leaders during their run, including a double-double performance on Saturday.

“Brian drew attention all game long but was able to make smart plays out of it,” Cougars assistant coach Wade Hackl said in a news release. “He was a force for us, and that’s what we like to see out of our fifth-year players.”

Assistant coach Joel Hunter was a member of the 2005 team that also set the mark at seven games.

Meanwhile, the women’s Cougar basketball team continued to prove why they are among the league’s best.

The U of R easily defeated Lethbridge 97-76 on Friday and then again on Saturday by a score of 84-57 in Regina.

The Cougars came into the weekend series as the top-ranked team in U SPORTS.

Regina-born Charlotte Kot led the way on Friday with 25 points. On Saturday, she earned her first double-double of the year.

The Men’s Cougars team will prepare for a tough road series against University of British Columbia (UBC), which crushed Winnipeg 100-54 on Saturday night.

The women’s team, now sitting at 7-1 on the year, will also travel to UBC for a two-game series against the 4-6 Thunderbirds.

 U of R swim teams race to historic finishes

The U of R swimming teams combined for eight medals at the 2017 Canada West Swimming Championships at the University of Victoria over the weekend, including the women’s program’s first ever gold medal.

SWIM | One of many highlights of the weekend – @EvaMadar87 ties for first place in the 50-metre freestyle to earn @CanadaWest gold! #WeAreUofR pic.twitter.com/GYqodhoTcq

— U of R Cougars (@ReginaCougars) November 27, 2017

Despite only bringing five swimmers: Bree Crookshanks, Georgia Kaluznick, Lexy King, Eva Madar, and McKinley Penner, the program finished third overall.

Madar’s performance in the 50-metre freestyle netted the program’s first-ever gold medal. She also won the bronze medal in the 100-metre butterfly.

Kaluzniak added a bronze in the 200-metre butterfly stroke and then the team of Kaluzniak, Crookshanks, Madar and Penner won a silver medal in the 4X100 medley. It was the first medal in the event in the program’s history.

The men’s team also took home four medals, tied for the second-most in team history. Noah Chaboter won bronze in the 200-metre backstroke and Brian Palachuk won bronze in the 200-metre freestyle.

The women’s team also rewrote the record books, led by Crookshanks breaking breaststroke records at all three distances.

Madar and Kaluznick both set two new individual records, with Madar’s coming in the 50-metre butterfly and the 50-metre freestyle and Kaluznick setting a new mark in both the 200-metre freestyle and 200-metre butterfly. The women also set relay records in the 4×100 freestyle and the 4×100 medley.

The men’s team set three new relay records as well.

The Cougars have two more major meets before competing at the U SPORTS Championships in Toronto in February.