For the second time in three years, the Brock Badgers men's swim team has won a divisional championship.

In front of their home crowd at the Eleanor Misener Aquatic Centre, the Badgers made waves with a close win at the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Dean Boles Divisional Championship on Sunday Nov. 24.  

The Badgers (979.5) bested the Laurier Golden Hawks (934) by just 45.5 points for first place while the Guelph Gryphons finished third with 464.5. 

"Our men's team is coming together nicely.  We won this meet two years ago and since then, we have really grown as a program," said Brock swimming head coach Dave Ling. "We got contributions across all 18 of our scoring roster. Laurier really pushed us all weekend and our men's team always had an answer; it was a full-team effort." 

Winning the overall standings with a combined score of 1,892, the Badgers have much to celebrate as they will enter the top division (Merrily Stratten Divisional Championships) next season.  

"Last year following divisionals, we set a goal as a team to win both sides of this year's meet," Ling added. "It was an aggressive goal, and it feels really good to see that come to fruition." 

The Badgers as a team finished with three gold medals, 10 silvers and two bronze for a total of 15. 

Jared Banta, a first-year swimmer, made an instant impact in his first Dean Boles Divisional Championship, winning two gold medals, while also setting a school record and qualifying for the U SPORTS Championships. 

In the 400-metre freestyle, Banta won a gold with a time of four minutes, 1 second and 63 milliseconds, while his time of 15 minutes, 58 seconds and 95 milliseconds in the 1,500-metre freestyle gave him another gold medal and qualified him for the national championships. 

The Beamsville, ON product also earned a silver in the 200m freestyle (1:53.10). In the 200m individual medley (IM), he finished in a time of 2:08.93, breaking a school record and placing fifth.

Fellow first-year athlete, Lucas Moavro, also broke a school record in the 200m IM, placing fourth right above Banta with a time of 2:06.90. He also captured a silver medal in the 400m IM (4:31.53) and a bronze in the 200m breaststroke (2:20.80). 

The team of Benjamin Schell, Camren Courchene-Carter, Aidan Johnston, Evan Karlov set a school record of 1:42.02 en route to a gold medal in the 4x50m medley relay. Julien Legault, Alex Walker, Evan Thomas and Drew Emmerton, tied the Guelph Gryphons for second in a time of 1:45.18 in the same event.

Courchene-Carter continues to smash school records in the 50m breaststroke, breaking it for the fourth time. His time of 28.33 gave him a silver medal while he also added another second-place finish in the 100m breaststroke (1:01.97). 

The other individual silver medals came from Schell (50m backstroke - 26.33), Thomas (200m butterfly - 2:09.07) and Evan Karlov (50m freestyle - 23.58).

Ling understands the amount of people it takes to make this team a success, and he is thankful for all their contributions. 

"A lot of thanks goes out to the amazing people who have invested in our program," he said. "Isaac Seabrook and his team of Brock Sports Performance students were here all weekend and continue to push our program forward while Karen Millarand her Brock Sports Medicine team are amazing and keep us healthy.  We are also fortunate to have support from Carley Jewell on the mental performance end."  

The Badgers will be back at the Eleanor Misener Aquatic Centre for the Brock Invitational on Sunday, Jan. 12. 

2024 DEAN BOLES DIVISIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP MEN'S STANDINGS  
1 Brock, 979.5  
2 Laurier, 934 
3 Guelph, 464.5  
4 Carleton, 427  
5 York, 274  
6 Queen's, 259  

2024 DEAN BOLES DIVISIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP OVERALL STANDINGS  
1 Brock, 1,892  
2 Laurier, 1,670  
3 Guelph, 1,288.5  
4 Queen's, 810.5  
5 Carleton, 587  
6 York, 400  

2024 DEAN BOLES DIVISIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP MEN'S RESULTS 
Men's 4x50m Freestyle Relay 
1 Laurier (Tyler Greenwood, Daniel Romagnoli, William Bryer, Kent Goni Avila), 1:32.81 
2 Brock (Evan Karlov, Blake Bishop, Jackson Bates, Camren Courchene-Carter), 1:33.77 
3 Guelph (Jacob Stojanovic, Marcus Selva, Andrei Ciorogariu, Adam Zielinski), 1:33.95 

Men's 400m IM 
1 Owen Jibb (Laurier), 4:26.10 U SPORTS QUALIFIER 
2 Lucas Moavro (Brock), 4:31.53 
3 Simon Rasmussen (York), 4:32.30

Men's 50m Backstroke 
1 Kent Gona Avila (Laurier), 25.42 U SPORTS QUALIFIER 
2 Benjamin Schell (Brock), 26.33 
3 Tyler Greenwood (Laurier), 26.42 

Men's 200m Freestyle 
1 Finn Tuck (Carleton), 1:49.33 U SPORTS QUALIFIER 
2 Jared Banta (Brock), 1:53.10 
3 Jacob Wahba (Laurier), 1:53.99 

Men's 100m Butterfly 
1 Eric Ginzburg (York), 53.46 U SPORTS QUALIFIER 
2 Jacob Stojanovic (Guelph), 56.46 
3 Kelton Langman (Laurier), 56.81 

Men's 100m Breaststroke 
1 Kent Goni Avila (Laurier), 1:01.35 U SPORTS QUALIFIER 
2 Camren Courchene-Carter (Brock), 1:01.97 U SPORTS QUALIFIER 
3 John Ryan (Laurier), 1:04.16 

Men's 200m Backstroke 
1 Finn Tuck (Carleton), 2:01.68 U SPORTS QUALIFIER 
2 Thomas Steele (Guelph), 2:06.87
3 William Bryer (Laurier), 2:07.06 

Men's 50m Freestyle 
1 Eric Ginzburg (York), 22.33 U SPORTS QUALIFIER 
2 Evan Karlov (Brock), 23.58 
3 Jacob Stojanvoic (Guelph), 23.76 

Men's 1500m Freestyle 
1 Jared Banta (Brock), 15:58.95 
2 Owen Jibb (Laurier), 16:01.77 
3 Jacob Wahba (Laurier), 16:25.86 

Men's 4x50m Medley Relay 
1 Brock (Benjmain Schell, Camren Courchene-Carter, Aidan Johnston, Evan Karlov), 1:42.02 SCHOOL RECORD 
2* Guelph (Thomas Steele, Dylan Ashley, Jacob Stojanovic, Marcus Selva), 1:45.18 
2* Brock (Julien Legault, Alex Walker, Evan Thomas, Drew Emmerton), 1:45.18 

Men's 200m IM 
1 Kent Goni Avila (Laurier), 2:03.47 
2 Owen Jibb (Laurier), 2:04.84 
3 William Bryer (Laurier), 2:06.86 
4 Lucas Moavro (Brock), 2:06.90 SCHOOL RECORD 
5 Jared Banta (Brock), 2:08.93 SCHOOL RECORD

Men's 100m Freestyle 
1 Eric Ginzburg (York), 49.46 
2 Finn Tuck (Carleton), 49.97 
3 Blake Bishop (Brock), 51.11 

Men's 200m Butterfly 
1 Tyler Greenwood (Laurier), 2:03.88 
2 Evan Thomas (Brock), 2:09.07 
3 Luc Landry (Carleton), 2:10.06 

Men's 200m Breaststroke 
1 Owen Jibb (Laurier), 2:18.04 
2 Dylan Thomas (Laurier), 2:20.00 
3 Lucas Moavro (Brock), 2:20.80 

Men's 100m Backstroke 
1 Finn Tuck (Carleton), 55.76 
2 Yasseen Madi (Queen's), 58.21 
3 William Bryer (Laurier), 58.57 

Men's 50m Butterfly 
1 Eric Ginzburg (York), 23.87 
2 Jace Borden (Carleton), 25.58 
3 Jacob Stojanovic (Guelph), 25.64 

Men's 50m Breaststroke 
1 Kent Goni Avila (Laurier), 27.97 
2 Camren Courchene-Carter (Brock), 28.33 SCHOOL RECORD 
3 Dylan Thomas (Laurier), 29.57 

Men's 400m Freestyle 
1 Jared Banta (Brock), 4:01.63 
2 Jacob Wahba (Laurier), 4:07.04 
3 Simon Rasmussen (York), 4:09.07 

Men's 4x100m Freestyle Relay 
1 Laurier (Kelton Langman, William Bryer, Owen Jibb, Kent Goni Avila), 3:26.47 
2 Brock (Blake Bishop, Michael McCormick, Jackson Bates, Zach Monminie), 3:29.27 
3 Carleton (Will Franklin, Nathan Landry, Jace Borden, Finn Tuck), 3:30.78