Three Vikes heading for Olympics
Three members of the UVic Vikes will be bound for Beijing this summer. Brent Fougner, head coach of the Vikes cross-country and track teams, will work with the middle distance teams at the Games, including medal hopeful Gary Reed of Victoria.
Ingrid Ruys, who joined the Vikes as an assistant middle-distance coach this past year, has been appointed Canada’s team manager of athletics.
Paralympics swimmer Stephanie Dixon will be making her third Summer Olympics appearance. Dixon has represented Canada at the 2000 Sydney Games and 2004 Athens Games. Born missing a leg, the psychology major currently holds three world records and six Canadian records.
Since 1970, nearly 130 Vikes athletes and coaches have represented Canada at the Olympics and Para-lympic Games.
Ten alumni rowers qualify for Beijing
In June, Canada’s women’s eight crew, featuring four former Vikes rowers, won the Olympic Qualification Regatta in Poland, claiming one of two available spots for Beijing. Former Vikes Darcy Marquardt, Buffy Alexander, Romina Stefancic and Sarah Bonikowsky realized their Olympic dreams with a close victory over a crew from The Netherlands.
The foursome joins six UVic alumni who qualified based on their past performance at the 2007 World Championships in Berlin. Rachelle deJong and Anna Marie Dezwager will represent the women’s quad, and Lindsay Jennerich is a spare on the lightweight. The highly touted men’s eight features Kevin Light and Adam Kreek, while the lightweight four features Mike Lewis.
Vikes crowned RCGA champs
In late May at Cordova Bay Golf Course, the UVic Vikes women’s golf team captured the 2008 RCGA University/College Championships for the first time. The Vikes finished the 72-hole tournament four strokes ahead of the four-time defending champion UBC Thunderbirds.
Led by senior Christina Spence, who won the individual title for the second straight year, the Vikes became the first women’s team other than UBC to win the RCGA title since the tournament was conceived in 2004. Spence finished the tournament at 13 strokes over, defeating her next closest competitor by 12 strokes. The UVic Law student, who is in the midst of completing her bar exams, led the field from start to finish.
The first place finish earns Spence an invitation to the World University Golf Championships this summer in Sun City, South Africa. The Port Alberni native will be accompanied by teammate Anne Balser, who finished in fifth place in the tournament. It will be the second trip to the World University Championship for the duo, who also represented Canada in 2007 in Bangkok, Thailand.
