Adam Scotti

On Friday evening, McGill hosted the University of Montreal and the University of Ottawa for a lightning-quick three-team swim meet. The teams sped through the 28 events in just over two hours.  

This was the second event of the year for the Martlets and Redmen as they tune up for the CIS season.

Although Friday’s meet was not officially scored, the three schools swam competitively. Overall, the Ottawa Gee Gees fielded the highest number of swimmers and took home an impressive 15 golds. The University of Montreal Carabins came second, winning nine events,  and McGill ended the meet with five first-place finishes. Despite taking home the fewest gold medals, McGill’s spirits were high as the team expressed their excitement for the upcoming season.

“There were a lot of races to do so everyone had to do a good job of getting up on the block with a positive attitude and diving in and giving it their best, and I think they did that,” said Head Coach Peter Carpenter.  

For the Martlets, senior Maxime Charron won both the 50m breaststroke and the 100m breaststroke, continuing her strong start to the season after a successful performance at last year’s national championships. Sophomore Sophie G. de Tonnacour won the 50m freestyle with an impressive time of 29.27 seconds. Finishing one-hundredth of a second behind her was freshman teammate Rayven Snodgrass.

For the Redmen, star swimmer and two-time all-Canadian Steven Bielby is back for his third year.  He is one of McGill’s most decorated athletes with seven CIS medals, four of which are gold. Bielby finished the 200m individual medley with an incredible lead.  He clocked in with a time of 2:09.70, over 10 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher. He was also on three relay teams.

As the newly elected captain of the Redmen, Bielby is positive about the team’s upcoming season.

“The team is moving in the right direction, so I think we’re doing well,” he said. “I think the team really stepped it up and built on our performances from last week.”  

As for individual goals, he aims to continue his success at the national level and qualify for the International University Sports Federation games in Shenzen, China this upcoming August.

Senior swimmers Joseph Toops and Patrick Mazurek also excelled.  Toops won the 50m freestyle with a time of 24.22 seconds, and was also a member of two second-place relay teams. Mazurek also had a very strong performance clocking 1:59.72 in the 200m freestyle.

With the addition of 12 new recruits—seven women and five men—McGill Swimming has a lot of potential.  Particularly, newcomer Jennifer Darling is one to watch.

“There were some standout swims. Jenn Darling’s 100 backstroke at 1:07, it was potentially the best time for her,” Carpenter said.   

The Martlets and Redmen have their goals set high for this season.  Martlets captain and fifth-year veteran Joanie Stilling is very optimistic.

“I think this year our main goals [are] to do better at QSSFs and try to go for the title,” Stilling said.

Next up for the team is a dual meet against the University of Toronto at home on October 30.  Toronto is a powerhouse, and Carpenter is looking forward to the competition.  

“It’s going to be good for our guys to be able to step up and race hard,” Carpenter said.

Golfer Lana Lawless is suing the Ladies’ Professional Golf Association and Long Drivers of America. Why? Because Lana, born a man, holds that the LPGA’s gender policy for entry, “female at birth,” is contrary to California state law. Lawless contends that by prohibiting her from competing, the LPGA is infringing the state’s civil rights law, as she is legally considered female.

In 2008, Lana won the Women’s World Long Drive Championships, organized and held by Long Drivers of America. This year, she’s not allowed to compete because the organization has changed its rules to mirror the LPGA’s. Lana wants the LPGA banned from holding competitions in California until the participatory requirements are changed. She isn’t the first transgender athlete to encounter obstacles. However, the LPGA is far behind most other sporting bodies in its policy.

Way back in 1976, transgender tennis player Renée Richards was denied entry into the U.S. Open unless she submitted herself to chromosomal testing. She fought the ruling by the United States Tennis Association, and in 1977, the New York Supreme Court supported her. Richards played professionally that year and by 1979 was the 20th ranked women’s singles player.

In 2003, the International Olympic Committee Medical Commission called a committee meeting “to discuss and issue recommendations on the participation of individuals who have undergone sex reassignment… in sport.” The “Stockholm Consensus” concluded that transsexuals had the right to compete in Olympic events if: (a) they had undergone sex reassignment surgery before puberty, and (b) post-puberty, that they had been legally recognized as of their assigned sex, had undergone hormonal therapy for a “sufficient length of time to minimise gender-related advantages in sports competitions,” and had undergone external genitalia changes and gonadectomy at least two years prior to the request for eligibility.

The IOC reserves the right to judge athletes on a case-by-case basis and to perform “sex-tests” on those athletes whose sex they find suspicious.

In the world of golf there’s already a precedent for Lawless’ current legal battle. In 2004, Australian golfer Mianne Bagger became the first transsexual woman to ever play in a professional golf tournament. Concurrent with her acceptance at the Australia Women’s Open, the Ladies’ Golf Union changed its policy to allow her to compete in the British Open. Not long after, the United States Golf Association changed its policy as well, opening the U.S. Women’s Open to transsexual women. Since then, Bagger has competed professionally in both Europe and Australia

Still, the LPGA has lagged far behind these other golf organizations and Lawless is attempting to force them to play catch-up quickly.

The issue of transgender athletes fighting to compete is one that will only grow in public consciousness as the issue bceomes more exposed. As more athletes come forward, outdated gender rules will be cast aside.

Nevertheless, the issue is not so cut-and-dry.  Even transgender sports legend Renée Richards criticized Lawless’ efforts, saying that physically strong transgender women could have an advantage (Lawless once weighed 245 pounds), particularly in something like a sprint or a weightlifting event. However, she noted that since Lawless is 57 years old, there probably wouldn’t be too much harm in letting her compete, since she’s not going to be a threat to professionals on the tour.

The question has to be asked though: Is that the right way to judge whether transgender women should be allowed to compete? Only allowing them in if they’re either too old or too bad to beat the “females at birth”? I don’t think so, but I don’t have an answer to what the acceptable parameters are. The only thing that is for sure is that this will be an issue of intense debate over the next 10 years and that the LPGA’s policy is going to come under a Caster Semenya-like level of scrutiny.

Maxime Sawicki

The top-seeded McGill Redmen lost to the reigning National Champion Concordia Stingers in the Canadian Intercollegiate Baseball Association Northern Conference Final in a best-of-three series, two games to one. McGill won the first game 5-4, lost 11-1 in the next game, and then fell 1-0 in the decisive third game.

The win advanced Concordia to the CIBA National Championships as divisional champs.

Shortly after the game, McGill learned that they would be advancing to nationals as a wild card, but during the game both thought they were fighting for their playoff lives.

Six teams will go to Windsor, Ontario next weekend for pool play, semi-finals, and the national final. McGill will have another chance to knock off the Stingers there, as both have a legitimate shot at the title.

Fifth-year closer Anthony Carbone was rock solid on the mound. In game one, he entered the game at the top of the seventh with a one-run lead and the chance to put Concordia away. He quickly struck out two batters and forced an easy fly ball to record the save.

“I live for that kind of pressure,” Carbone said. “I’m a wreck on the bench watching the games. I’m so stressed out [but when] I get in the bullpen and start warming up, I start to just calm down and I get on the mound and that’s basically been my element […] I was excited to get into that game.”

Carbone shut out the Stingers when he came on in the bottom of the sixth in game three to keep McGill within striking distance. However, the Concordia pitching tandem of Andre Lagarde and Braden Simpson blanked McGill to preserve the win.

Concordia’s dugout was loud throughout the first game and the volume only increased as the weekend progressed.

When the McGill players were  asked if the noise had any effect on tthem, the response was an unequivocal “No.”

“The guys were telling me on the bench [that Concordia was jeering me], but when I [got] on the mound I really don’t hear anything,” Carbone said. “Whenever they try to get under my skin it doesn’t really work. I just hear a bunch of noise.”

“I’ve been around long enough that that stuff doesn’t bother me at all,” said shortstop Alex Day, the offensive catalyst in McGill’s game one victory. “You come to expect that when you play Concordia, that’s the kind of team they have, and if that works for them, great. We like to think of ourselves as a classier ball club.”

Still, McGill catcher Justin Cloutier was visibly rattled by comments from the Concordia dugout, leading to a brief verbal altercation.

McGill’s Head Coach Ernie D’Alessandro, for his part, would have liked even more noise, but from the bleachers.

“It’s the usual stuff, it’s the parents, it’s the families that come out… but it’d be nice to get the students,” he said. “It’s not close to campus but it’s not hard to get here. Either set up a bus from school to come here or there’s the 138 or the 104 [that] stop right in front of the ballpark… guys are busting their humps, they’ve had a good season [and] it’d be nice to have a little bit of student support.”

The Redmen travel to Windsor for the CIBA National Championship next weekend. They hope to rebound from the tightly contested defeat and return home with the gold.