The University of Toronto Varsity Blues swimming team finished in first-place in the Quad Challenge Meet against the Western Mustangs, Calgary Dinos and Quebec All-Stars on Friday (Jan. 23) afternoon at Varsity Pool.

Total points were: Toronto - 830, Calgary - 631, Quebec All-Stars - 335, Western - 272. 

The meet was neck and neck between Calgary and Toronto as the two U SPORTS powerhouses exchanged leads serval times in the first half. In the third quarter, U of T was able to pull away with a large lead going into the relay events," said head coach Byron MacDonald. "There were two unique elements to this meet that do not appear in any other meet in the country." he said. "They contributed to the scoring in a big way."

"The first element was jackpotting, where the swimmer winning an event earned nine points for their team in the standings and if they beat other swimmers by a designated amount of time, they would earn that swimmers' points for their team. The second element was the skins events, where two swimmers would be eliminated from the race until two teams are left standing. Earning points all along," MacDonald explained.

Turning the meet in the Blues favour was fourth-year commerce student Ben Loewen, who earned a jackpot in the 100m butterfly, beating six of seven opposing swimmers by 2.5 seconds to earn 21 total points for U of T. Loewen finished the day with four first-place finishes and jackpots in all four to earn male most valuable player of the meet.

Second-year swimmer Nathan Thomas put the Blues in command of the meet when was able to jackpot all seven swimmers he raced in the 200m breaststroke to earn 38 points for the Blue and White. Four more Blues also notched first-place finishes as Liam Weaver won the 50m freestyle, Ben Winterborn added two more top prizes in the 50m backstroke and 100m freestyle. Meanwhile, Quinn Matteis took home the 400m freestyle and Carter Buck won the 100m backstroke.

On the women's side, second-year Vancouver native Angel Yao and fourth-year science major Teagan Vander Leek notched a pair of first-place finishes. Meanwhile, rookie swimmers Natalie Hocevar, Abbi Bahler and Maria Cosic won the 200m freestyle, 200m backstroke and 50m butterfly respectively. Fourth-year Toronto native Katie Maravino won the 400m freestyle.

U of T will now turn their attention to the Toronto Grand Prix at Varsity Pool on Saturday (Jan. 24) morning. The meet is scheduled to begin at 10:15 a.m. "Many of our swimmers will be tired from today's meet, many raced six or more races with maximum effort. It'll be a good test for the OUA and U SPORTS three-day championships," MacDonald said.