New year, more competitions! Our sport clubs started out the new year right with wins and great successes all around. Some sport clubs competed in their first competition post-COVID, others travelling as far as Santa Barbara, California or Hawaii! Check out below to see what our clubs got into!
Alpine Skiing
Silver Mountain Qualifier | Kellogg, ID | January 21st & 22nd, 2023
UBC Alpine Skiing SC's has finally returned to competition, and they look amazing! In their first competition in the United States Collegiate Skiing Association (USCSA), they stood out amongst their American competition with the Men's Side finishing in 2nd and the Women's finishing in 5th.
Individual performances from Nelson Fretenburg, Marko Smitran, and John Forssander, all placing in the top 10, propelled the men's team to a 2nd place finish - a fraction of a second away from leaving the tournament on top of Men's division.
On the women's side, Malia Hodgkinson finished in the top 10 both days, Anika Prasad finished in the top 20 both days, and Emma Fontaine placed in the flip (top 30) in every run of her first racing event placing 25th!
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To read more about their stellar performance, check out their return to competition blog!
Artistic Swimming
CUASL Westerns | Surrey, BC | January 21st & 22nd, 2023
This January, our Artistic Swimming Sport Club had an excellent showing at westerns which resulted in qualification for Canadian University Artistic Swimming League (CUASL) Nationals. Whether it be solos, duets or team performances, our performers in the experienced and novice divisions stood out. The experienced performers came on top in all their categories and are in great shape to repeat as national champions when they head to Markham, ON to defend their title against Canada's top artistic swimming university.
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To read more on individual and team performances, check out their Westerns Recap!
Equestrian
Triple Hunt Seat Show | Eugene, OR | January 20th - 22nd, 2023
Our Equestrian Sport Club also made their competitive debut for the season, returning to competition for the first time since the pre-COVID era. This signified more than just a return to competition, but a statement that UBC is a force to be reckon with as this was the strongest the their sport club has ever showed out at a competition in it’s history!
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If you want to read more about their weekend, check out their blog post for more details!
Nordic Skiing
Teck BC Cup | Whistler, BC | January 7th-8th, 2023
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UBC Nordic had a spectacular debut at BC Cup #1 in Whistler – what a way to start off the season! In the classic sprint on Saturday, Maggie Beckner, Claire Sylvestre-Baron, Tristan Lee, and Reese Critchlow had a strong showing in the heats, all finishing within the top 5 of their categories. In the skate distance on Sunday, Matthew pulled off a 7th place in U20 men, while Anna Chatterton and Paige Saravanamutto’s beautiful technique landed them in 3rd and 4th in U20 women. Maggie and Claire also blew away the competition on Sunday, finishing 2nd and 3rd in U23 women. These great results have the team ready to go for BC Cup #2 in Revelstoke in February for the 2nd of 3 BC Cup races this season.
For more info about their race weekend, check this blog out!
Cascade Cup | Manning Park, BC | January 21st, 2023
Skiers faced up against some cold weather for the 15km or 30km races. Claire Sylvestre-Baron took the win in the women’s skate 30km, while Matthew Broder was awarded the fastest course time of the day in the men’s skate 30k. For many of our athletes, this was the longest race completed! Overall, an awesome weekend with some great results.
Sailing
Peter Wenner Rainbow Invite | Honolulu, HI | January 14 – 15, 2023
Nine UBC sailors made the journey to Hawaii last month to compete at the Peter Wenner Memorial Rainbow Invite Regatta hosted by the University of Hawaii. As one of two Canadian schools racing, they competed against schools from all over America. The field included teams from Arizona, California, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
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Read more about how they did and their adventures here!
Table Tennis
NCTTA Pacific Northwest Divisional II | January 28, 2023 | Seattle, WA
Last month, Table Tennis SC competed at the Pacific Northwest Divisional Championships, with athletes playing in both the Singles and Teams events! In the Men’s Singles competition, David Lin emerged as the champion and Edison Huang placed 3rd. This ensures their place in the Regional Tournament in late February in San Diego.
In Women’s Singles, UBC excelled as the Top 4 women were all thunderbirds: Ivy Liao was the champion, Rose Huang was the runner-up, and Akkshita Guptaa and Fiona Fan were semi-finalists! With this performance, Ivy and Rose have directly qualified for the upcoming regional tournament.
In the Women’s Teams event, their A Team placed 1st🥇and their B team finished in second place🥈. Their Co-Ed A Team came in 2nd place🥈! They have earned a spot at Regionals at UCSD, as well!
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Individual Results: Team Results:
Men’s Singles:
Women’s Singles:
David Lin - 1st Place
Ivy Liao - 1st Place
Edison Huang - 3rd Place
Rose Huang - 2nd Place
Akkshita Guptaa and Fiona Fan - 3rd Place
Co-Ed Divisions:
Women’s Divisions:
Co-Ed A Team: 2nd Place (among A Teams)
Women’s A Team: 1st Place
Co-Ed B Team: 1st Place (among B Teams)
Women’s B Team: 2nd Place
Erraine Ivy Liao and Rose Huang brought their best when they met each other in the finals. Strong plays in every set really “set” the level for competition play at the tournament! Great play by David Lin and Edison Huang during their semifinals match-up where they each gave it their all for a spot in the finals! Every set was close and it was a game of both skill and mentality that garnered a round of applause from spectators and players when the game concluded. Shoutout to Hester Huo for her consistent plays and energy cheering on her teammates throughout the day! Great work securing the W for the Women’s Team! Shoutout to all the players for winning at least one game and for supporting each other throughout the tournament (despite the cold temperatures inside the gym!). We are all looking forward to travelling together to UCSD next month for more table tennis competition!Men's Ultimate
Santa Barbara Invite | January 28-29, 2023 | Santa Barbara, CA
With high anticipation to make their season debut in the USAU Division-1 circuit, the Men's Ultimate came out to put their months of practice to the test.
With three decisive wins against Grand Canyon, Utah, and Santa Barbara, UBC would find themselves facing off against Cal Poly, a top-8 USAU Nationals team. Though UBC applied heavy pressure, including Devon Bringeland-Powell's gravity defying bid, Cal Poly would take the point and the game.
An early Sunday morning pre-quarter game would be played between UBC and Northwestern. Pressure from the T-birds' person defence would suffocate the Northwestern offence and would push UBC to a quarterfinals game against UCLA. Though UBC had played UCLA and come away with a universe point win in the previous season, UCLA would come away victorious in a tense game.
With injuries and the temperature both rising, UBC played against a familiar team, UVic, and would fall short to a win. The T-birds would finish off the day and tournament against another familiar regional team, Washington and earned a well-deserved win to end off the tournament.
Close games with one point determining the winner, against the best teams in the country, are indicative of UBC's potential ceiling as this season just begins to take flight.
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Heading into the 2023 USAU circuit, these 'Birds rank #4 amongst all colleges. In this exhibition, they gauged their skills against the Pacific Northwest field to preview their season's competition. Women’s Ultimate SC opens their season with a dominant 4-0 performance at Bellingham Invite with notable performances from rookies Jenalyn Ng and Jamie Jung, the former being selected as TSC's Athlete of the Month in January. Their next marquee event will be the Dogwood Bowl (previously known as the Douglas Bowl), hosted alongside the Men's Ultimate SC. Both teams take on the University of Victoria Vikings in their annual clash for western Canadian ultimate supremacy. In February, we see Equestrian back in action, Cycling taking an exotic training camp, Men's and Women's Ultimate hosting the Dogwood Bowl, Alpine Skiing Regionals, more races from Nordic Skiing, Table Tennis regional championships, Men's and Women's Tennis return to competition and a Quadball tournament hosted on MacInnes field.
Day 1 - Pool Play: 3-1
Day 2 - Bracket Play: 2-2
UBC 15 - 4 Grand Canyon
UBC 11 - 5 Northwestern
UBC 11 - 6 Utah
UBC 7 - 8 UCLA
UBC 14 - 2 California-Santa Barbara
UBC 7 - 10 Victoria
UBC 10 - 11 Cal Poly-SLO
UBC 11 - 9 Washington
Women's Ultimate
Bellingham Invite | January 21, 2023 | Bellingham, WA
Overall record: 4-0
UBC 15-3 Western Washington Chaos
UBC 13-2 University of Washington Element
UBC 13-1 against University of Oregon Fugue
UBC 10-2 against University of Victoria Vikings