A recap of Varsity Club action from the past week.

Sailing
Shields Regatta

With less than optimal wind, but 28 degree Annapolis sunshine at the U.S. Naval Academy, the Queen's Keelboat Team prepared themselves for a testing weekend of high quality, one-design racing.

The first race of day 1 proved tricky, as the team struggled to find their groove early and found themselves in back of the fleet. However, after great speed and impressive teamwork, the team clawed their way back and salvaged a 4th. In the second race, the team worked extremely hard, constantly working to improve their sail trim and sailing a nearly flawless race, placing second behind their rivals, the California Maritime Academy. As the wind increased and riding on their momentum from the previous race, the team showed their true colours, and dominated the third race with a landslide victory. However, in the final race of the day, the team had poor start and found themselves fighting to catch the leaders, yet again. Though their talent shone through, as they passed 4 teams throughout the race to close out the first day with a fourth place finish, putting them in a tie for first overall with the Californians.

With high winds predicted, the second day of the regatta was anticipated to be much more challenging and exciting. ,Low and behold, in the first race Queen's battled through the big breeze, and in an exciting chase on the final leg, the team narrowly finished third. However, the team wasn't satisfied with third, and after some spinnaker trouble at the first leeward mark rounding, the team's tactics proved to be the deciding factor, and the team cruised onto another first place finish. Heading into the final race, the team remained tied with California for first. The team battled hard, fighting for the title throughout the entire race. Unfortunately, a few costly mistakes around the final mark rounding allowed for the Californians to pull away.

With their heads held high, the team's resilience and talent led them to a second overall finish. Though the trophy may have evaded their grasps yet again, the team hopes to continue their success as they prepare for the Canadian Keelboat Championships.

Cycling
This weekend, the Queen's University Varsity Cycling Club competed at the Mansfield Outdoor Centre near Collingwood, Ontario. A series of three separate events were held: an eliminator, a time trial and a classic XC race. The eliminator is a short 300m circuit which starts 4 people with the top two finishers moving on to the next round, the Time Trial (TT) is an individual race against the clock through forested single track and the XC race is the usual mass start, hour-long race.

Even though the rain came down on another drizzly day of racing, Queen's was dominant in the eliminator series, winning in all four categories. Men's A: Cameron Lawrence, Men's B: Patrick Farrell, Women's A: Hannah Simms, Women's B: Amanda Schevers.

The time trial, a forested trail of technical trail riding, had a new record set by McPhaden who rode it in 7min09s, 11 seconds faster than his Guelph rival. Other top performers in the TT were Farrell and Schevers who won their respective Men's B and Women's B races.

Sunday's XC race took place on a 7km trail through the forest of Mansfield under a bright summery sun. The Gaels rode to a pair of podiums in all categories but one. Notable performances included McPhaden who won his 3rd race of the season, Stuart Thibert who made it onto his first ever mountain bike podium, Schevers who won her first ever XC race and Farrell who also won his first ever XC race.

The overall winners of the weekend are as follows:
Men's A: Cameron McPhaden (1st), Stuart Thibert (3rd)
Women's A: Hannah Simms (1st)*, Andrea Burley (1st)*
Men's B: Patrick Farrell (1st), Michael Fader (3rd)
Women's B: Amanda Schevers (1st)
*Tie on points for the combined score for the weekend

Next weekend the Gaels will travel to Caledon to race at Albion Hills on Sunday September 27th.

Fastpitch
Saturday, Queen's played their first home games against the University of Guelph. Josie Wahl, Jessica Ruzicki and Morgan Gustas each had two hits in the game to help Queen's to a 3-2 victory over the Gryphons. The second game was an offensive battle until the end. Queen's and Guelph traded runs, going into the 8th inning with a tie game at seven runs a piece. The Gaels added six runs in the final inning to bring the game to an end, with the final score 13-7. Winning pitchers were Sarah Thompson and Taylor Bluhm, who combined for 14 strikeouts.

Sunday was a long day at the ballpark. Queen's had a very strong first game trading runs with the University of Toronto. The 8th and extra inning did not solve the back and forth battle, and ended with a 3-3 tie. Unfortunately, both teams were awarded a 0-7 loss, as the OIWFA constitution states that no game must end in a tie (other than due to the rain), and teams who end in a tie will both be awarded a 0-7 loss. Jaimie Laing had three hits in the game, while Thompson, Wahl and Bluhm each had two. The second game was an offensive struggle. Ruzicki had Queen's only hit of the game, in a 10-2 loss for Queen's.

Saturday vs. Guelph:
Game 1: 3-2 Win
Game 2: 13-7 Win

Sunday vs. U of T
Game 1: 0-7 Loss
Game 2: 2-10 Loss

Women's Lacrosse
Queen's began its season with two impressive wins.

Against conference rival Trent, The Gaels opened with a four goal lead and finished ahead 15 - 7 on the back of a 4-goal game by player/coach Sarah Utting. Other notables include a 4-assist game by captain Mackenzie Clemens, and a hat-trick by freshman Brianna Barton and newcomer Shelby O'Ryan.

Against York, the Gaels were up by 6 before the Yeoman notched one. This time, last year's OUA Rookie Alexa Fenton had a hat-trick, Brianna & Mackenzie had impressive games as did freshman Samantha French. Final score 13 - 2.

Next weekend, the Gaels face division rival Toronto, as well as Laurier and McMaster at Trent.

Women's Field Hockey
Saturday
The women's field hockey team traveled to Guelph this week for the first three games of the season. Queen's tied their first game of the weekend 1-1 against the Waterloo Warriors. Olivia Flock scored the only goal for the Gaels to tie up the game in the 48th minute.

Sunday
In their second game of the weekend the Gaels earned another 2-2 draw against McGill. The goals came from Olivia Flock scoring the first to tie the game 1-1 in the 10th minute. After giving up the lead early in the second half, Lindsay Bjornson scored the second goal for the Gaels in the 54th minute which earned them the draw.

In the third and final game of the weekend the Gaels suffered a tough 6-0 loss to Guelph.

Next weekend the Gaels field hockey team will travel to York to play Toronto on Saturday at 2:15pm, and McGill and York on Sunday at 9am and 4pm.