The Brock Badgers saw an impressive debut from a first-year swimmer. 

After placing seventh a year ago, the Brock men's swimming team moved up to sixth place at the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Swimming Championships.  

The three-day competition took place at the Toronto Pan Am Centre in Unionville, ON from Friday, Feb. 7 to Sunday, Feb. 9. 

First place went to the Toronto Varsity Blues who had 992.5 points. The Western Mustangs came second (618.5) while the McMaster Marauders, who were the hosts of the competition, captured third (494.5). 

"I'm pleased to see our men's program move up a spot in the OUA standings and perform well across the board. Camren Courchene-Carter's win in the 100-metre breaststroke got the weekend off to a hot start and we swam well all weekend," said head coach Dave Ling. "We increased our points scored from 2024 as we continue to push the team forward.  I'm thankful for the help from our support team led by Isaac Seabrook, Karen Millar and Carley Jewell and the role they play in making certain we are ready to achieve the successes we had at the OUA Championships."

Courchene-Carter dazzled with two medals in his first appearance at the provincial competition while breaking a 20-year old drought. 

The first-year local St. Catharines product won the 100m breaststroke event and qualified for the U SPORTS Championships with a time of one minute and 68 milliseconds. Courchene-Carter is the first men's OUA individual champion for Brock since 2003 and his time also made a new school record.

He followed this up on the third day with a second-place finish in the 50m breaststroke event, touching the wall in 28.02. He qualified for the U SPORTS Championships in that race and the 200m breaststroke as he placed fifth in the 200m event with a time of 2:15.77. Both times also broke previous program highs.

Senior swimmer Julien Legault closed out his OUA career with multiple top eight finishes. His best relay finish was fourth (1:41.38) as he joined Courchene-Carter, Evan Karlov and Benjamin Schell in the 4x50m medley relay which broke a previous Brock record. He also partnered with Courchene-Carter, Blake Bishop and Aidan Johnston to break a school record (3:48.19), placing sixth.  

In individual races, Legault came in seventh in the 50m backstroke (26.08) and he also swam in two B finals, with his highest finish in those races being a third place showing (11th overall) in the 100m backstroke (57.84).  

Jared Banta finished eighth in the 1500m freestyle as he finished in 16:07.55. 

Two men's relays teams came fifth in their respective races. 

Karlov, Mario Agostino, Jackson Bates and Zac Monminie accomplished the feat in the 4x50m freestyle event (1:33.38) while Bates, Bishop, Courchene-Carter and Monminie finished the 4x100m freestyle in a time of 3:27.26. 

The Badgers saw 15 total appearances in the B finals, with Bishop's third-place B final result and 11th place overall finish being one of the highlights. 

Zach El-Sayed competed in the 100 breaststroke para (SB9) competition, completing the race in a time of 1:21.99

Head coach Dave Ling was named Male Coach of the Year at the conclusion of the event while Ryan Bossy earned the Community Service Award.

For Courchene-Carter, the next competition is the U SPORTS Championships in Toronto at the Athletic Centre Varsity Pool from March 6-8.

MEN'S TEAM STANDINGS AT THE 2025 OUA CHAMPIONSHIPS 
1. Toronto, 992.5 
2. Western, 618.5 
3. McMaster, 494.5 
4. Waterloo, 494.0 
5. Laurier, 323.5 
6. Brock, 285.5 
7. York, 200.0 
8. Carleton, 175.0 
9. Guelph, 151.0 
10. Queen's, 112.5 

MEN'S MEDALLISTS AT THE 2025 OUA CHAMPIONSHIPS 
Day 1
4x50m Freestyle Relay 
1. Toronto 1:29.41 OUA RECORD 
(Misha Bagrianski, Andrew Herman, Albert Bouley, Liam Weaver) 
2. Waterloo 1:32.08 
(Allen Zheng, Cristian Ciorogariu, Gavin Lusby, Louie Yin) 
3. Western 1:33.68 
(Luca Cappelletto, Jackson Waddell,Tyrell O'Dwyer, Hanwen Luo) 

200m Freestyle 
1. Kieran Stone, Western, 1:47.66 
2. Bill Dongfang, Toronto, 1:47.90 
3. Finn Tuck, Carleton, 1:48.36 

100m Breaststroke 
1. Camren Courchene-Carter, Brock, 1:00.68 
2. Nathan Thomas, Toronto, 1:00.75 
3. Hayden Yeung, McMaster, 1:01.06  

100m Butterfly 
1. Benjamin Loewen, Toronto, 52.41 OUA RECORD 
2. Eric Ginzburg, York, 52.59 
3. Alex Boden, Waterloo, 53.24 

50m Backstroke 
1. Ben Winterborn, Toronto, 24.79 OUA RECORD 
2. Andrew Herman, Toronto, 24.83  
3. Albert Bouley, Toronto, 24.97 

400m IM 
1. Jacob Gallant Toronto, 4:14.16 
2. Brendan Oswald, Toronto, 4:20.10 
3. Kieran Stone, Western, 4:22.05 

4x100m Medley Relay 
1. Toronto, 3:36.39 OUA RECORD 
(Carter Buck, Nathan Thomas, Benjamin Loewen, Ben Winterborn) 
2. McMaster, 3:42.31 
(Emilio Gonzalez Maciel, Hayden Yeung, Colin Campbell, Preston McMann)  
3. Waterloo, 3:42.76 
(Louie Yin, Liam Wallich, Alex Boden, Allen Zheng)

Day 2
50m Freestyle 
1. Liam Weaver, Toronto, 22.15 
2. Luke Stewart-Beinder, Western, 22.21 
3. Eric Ginzburg, York, 22.27 
 
200m Breaststroke 
1. Nathan Thomas, Toronto, 2:10.80 
2. Jacob Gallant, Toronto, 2:13.24 
3. Aidan Iapicco, Waterloo, 2:14.70 
 
400m Freestyle 
1. Kieran Stone, Western, 3:50.13 
2. Bill Dongfang, Toronto, 3:51.65 
3. Quinn Matteis, Toronto, 3:52.70 
 
100m Backstroke 
1. Ben Loewen, Toronto, 52.86 OUA RECORD 
2. Ben Winterborn, Toronto, 53.68 
3. Andrew Herman, Toronto, 54.13 
 
200m Medley 
1. Kent Goni Avila, Laurier: 2:00.26 
2. Kieran Stone, Western: 2:01.79 
3. Carter Buck, Toronto: 2:01.82 
 
50m Butterfly 
1. Eric Ginzburg, York, 23.56 OUA RECORD 
2. Albert Bouley, Toronto, 24.03 
3. Liam Weaver, Toronto, 24.29 
 
4x200m Freestyle Relay 
1. Toronto (Brendan Oswald, Quinn Matteis, Mateusz Powalowski, Bill Dongfang), 7:23.14 
2. Western (Isaac Allen, Hayden Bartoch, Rowan Uy, Kieran Stone), 7:23.54 
3. Waterloo (Kevin Zhang, Aidan Iapicco, Alex Boden, Raymond Duong), 7:26.99 

Day 3
4x50m Medley Relay 
1. Toronto (Andrew Herman, Nathan Thomas, Aiden Harris, Liam Weaver), 1:38.13 OUA RECORD 
2. Western (David Hickey, Theo Graboski, Luca Cappelletto, Jackson Waddell), 1:40.97 
3. Waterloo (Louie Yin, Liam Wallich, Gavin Lusby, Allen Zheng), 1:41.00 

200m Butterfly 
1. Ben Loewen, Toronto, 1:55.54 OUA RECORD 
2. Bill Dongfang, Toronto, 1:57.08 
3. Kevin Zhang, Waterloo, 1:59.23 

100m Freestyle 
1. Luke Stewart-Beinder, Western, 48.70 
2. Eric Ginzburg, York, 48.98 
3. Finn Tuck, Carleton, 49.40 

50m Breaststroke 
1. Isaac Allen, Western, 27.92 
2. Kent Goni Avila, Laurier, 28.02 
2. Camren Courchene-Carter, Brock, 28.02 

200m Backstroke 
1. Ben Loewen, Toronto, 1:55.40 
2. Carter Buck, Toronto, 1:58.43 
3. Emilio Gonzalez, McMaster, 1:59.70 
 
Men's 1500m Freestyle 
1. Quinn Matteis, Toronto, 15:31.52 
2. Aidan Iapicco, Waterloo, 15:41.33 
3. Brian Dietz, McMaster, 15:50.14