It was a historic weekend at the pool for the Brock Badgers women's swimming team. 

The Badgers placed third overall for the first time since the 1988 at the 2026 Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Championships, held from Thursday, Feb. 18 to Saturday, Feb. 20 at the Athletic Centre Varsity Pool in Toronto. 

Coming in with 389 points, Brock narrowly beat out last year's bronze medallists, the McMaster Marauders, and jumped up from their sixth-place finish a year ago. 

"We dug ourselves in a hole on Day 1 with an unfortunate relay disqualification," said head coach Dave Ling. "But over the next couple of days, we got some best times, first time finallists and 15 of the 18 women were able to score points, which I'm very excited about. It's a very good moment for our program." 

Brock's success in the relays helped them earn points to climb up the standings throughout the weekend. 

On the first day, the team of Cassidy Karrel, Tatum O'Connor, Quinn Mersereau, Grace Chai placed third in the 4x50-metre freestyle relay with a time of one minute, 42 seconds and 20 milliseconds, setting a new school record. 

Chai, O'Connor and Adriana Martone broke their own previous program record in the 4x50m medley relay (1:53.29), claiming a silver medal along with Gwen Creskey. 

The Badgers weren't finished on Day 3 with medals in the relays as Karrel, Mersereau, Danielle Moss and Mia Frederiksen finished third in the 4x100m freestyle relay, touching the wall in 3:51.93 and breaking another Brock record. 

Repeating as champion in both the 50m backstroke (27.66) and 100m backstroke events (59.92), O'Connor delivered a sensational final performance at the provincial championships. 

"She is a star and is the anchor of our program not just through performance but emotionally," Ling said. "The team loves her, and we're very fortunate she's part of our team I'm very proud of what she was able to accomplish." 

Along with her relay medals, Chai, a second-year athlete, earned an individual OUA medal for the second year in a row, coming in third in the 100m freestyle in 56.20. The product of Markham, Ont., rewrote the school record books in the 50m freestyle with a time of 25.75, besting the previous time of 25.83 set in 2017 by Jessie MacLean. 

"We asked her to do quite a bit, and she's a star on relays," Ling said. "I'm proud of her being able to get the school in the 50m freestyle finally, and we're hoping that she can get some good results at the U SPORTS Championships." 

Karrel and Frederiksen also qualified for the national championship competition with their times in the 50m freestyle (26.34) and 100m backstroke (1:03.26), respectively.

For the second year in a row, Dave Ling was named the OUA Women's Coach of the Year at the conclusion of the event. 

"It takes a village, it's not just the coaches but Brock Sports Medicine and Brock Sports Performance as Isaac Seabrook and his students work very hard for us," Ling said. "From there, it's Gokhan Bozyigit, Liam McKenna and Victoria Culp — we're all working really hard. To get to be the one who gets a piece of the trophy is very satisfying, and I'm very proud of our women."

The Badgers who have qualified will now look ahead to the U SPORTS Championships taking place from March 12-14 at the Markham Pan-Am Centre in Markham, Ont. 

WOMEN'S INDIVIDUAL AWARDS AT THE 2026 OUA CHAMPIONSHIPS 
OUA Swimmer of the Year  
Nina Mollin (Toronto)