Toronto,ON- The Toronto Varsity Blues long history of Canadian University Athletics has given them one of the most decorated trophy cases in the entire country. In hockey alone they have won so many titles that endlessly fill the rafters of Varsity Arena, so much so that they squeezed all the names on to just a few banners. Among many success stories during the athletic season, 2019/2020 saw the continued brilliance of one of the athletic program’s staple champions as well as an up and coming team find long awaited glory.

The Varsity Blues Figure Skating Dominance

For the 5th straight season the Varsity Blues figure skating team showed why they are the dominant program in the province. Despite a formidable showing from Western, Toronto ran away with the 2020 OUA Gold Medal, their 5th consecutive OUA Title, picking up 123 points across two days of competition, 35 points ahead of the Mustangs.

The Varsity Blues picked up a medal in all 14 of the events including 7 individual gold medals in
– Open Rhythm Dance (Yohanna Broker, Jessica Reid)
– Senior Similar Pairs Freeskate (Keiko Marshall, Melanie Zavitski)
– Star 10 Solo Dance (Chyna Hui)
– Novice Short Program (Keiko Marshall)
– Intermediate Similar Pairs Freeskate (Chloe Zhou, Gloria Gao)
– Gold Singles (Jennifer Parker)
– Gold Solo Dance (Emma Jianopoulos)
– Gold Medal in the Synchro competition

The 2020 OUA Provincial Figure Skating Championships provided an opportunity for the Varsity Blues to once again stake their place as by far the dominate figure skating program in the province.

Women’s Volleyball goes Back to Back

In writing this I am absolutely not ignoring the long awaited McCaw Cup title for Toronto Women’s Hockey, instead we are just sharing the love a little for a sport that gets less attention. In 2019-2020 the Toronto Women’s Volleyball team ran the table in the OUA East Division from start to finish. They battled out with the Ryerson Rams for top spot but a couple of dominating performances would get them to first in the province with a 17-2 record.

A lot of their success was on the backs of the three headed monster that ran the show for most of the season.

The first head belonged to the 5th year veteran Alina Dorman. She finished 2019/2020 in the top 5 in the OUA in Kills per set, points per set, and total attacks.

The Blues 2nd head belonged to Caleigh Cruickshank. The fellow 5th year had a slower season but stepped up in the playoffs to lead the entire OUA in service aces per set at 0.70 as well as finishing in the top 10 in kills and points.

The final head to the Blues Monster belongs to Haley Goodwin. The 3rd year Kinesiology student was the Blues helping hand, finishing in the top 10 in the OUA in assists and assists per set in the regular season before amping up to being the best in the playoffs finishing with the most assists and assists per set.

In the Playoffs the Blues only dropped a single set across three dominating matches as they swept the Waterloo Warriors in the Quarterfinals, and took a hard fought 3-1 victory over the Western Mustangs in the Quigley Cup semifinals before sweeping the upstart Brock Badgers in the Finals to win their second straight Quigley Cup championship.

The Varsity Blues have a decorated OUA history and 2019-2020 was another year of successfully being able to add to the trophy case.