Ultimate Canada Magazine – May 6, 2019
The 2019 edition of the Canadian High School Ultimate Championships (CHSUC) is in the books and it was one to remember.
Kelvin High School, of Winnipeg, MB, came into the weekend as reigning champions and having only graduated three players from the 2018 winning team, the Clippers brought depth and experience with them to Ottawa.
Kelvin were only really tested once in the entire tournament—in their first game of the weekend—and after their universe point win against St. Paul, they looked unstoppable.
From that moment onwards, the Clippers took down Parkdale and D’Arcy McGee in pool play followed by victories against hometown rivals St. John’s-Ravenscourt in the quarter-finals and over the Etobicoke Collegiate Institute Rams in the semi-finals on Sunday.
The other side of the bracket saw the Bowmanville Talons, from Bowmanville, ON, also go undefeated en route to their second straight appearance in the finals. In a rematch of the 2018 championship game, the two teams battled it out for the gold medal. In the end, the Clippers were absolutely dominant, taking half at 7-2 and then going on a 6-0 run in the second half to close out the game for their second consecutive title at 13-2.
Cassidy Knockaert had a phenomenal tournament, helping lead her team to the gold medal. Knockaert was deservedly named the Most Valuable Player of the championship game.
Graduating players Quinn Wilson, Lindsay Marshall, Meagan Gillis and Sam Petersen all had incredible tournaments as they helped bring Kelvin back to the top of the podium. Meanwhile returning players Rachel Mann, Riley Peterson, MacKinley Hall and Adam Fast showed tremendous promise for the future of this team.
Bowmanville may have had a tough game in the finals, but looked strong through the rest of the tournament. With only three players graduating from this year and the experience of another championship game under their belts, the 13 returning grade 11 students, including the likes of Grace Smith and Logan Dufour, are sure to make waves in the competition at CHSUC 2020.
In their first ever appearance at the event, the Gray Academy Raiders, from Winnipeg, MB, faced only one loss—in the semi-finals to Bowmanville—as they went on to take home the bronze medal with a victory over Etobicoke. The Raiders proved their depth in the bronze medal game as star player Sarah Jacobsohn was out with an injury. If they continue to attend this event, Gray Academy will undoubtedly continue to challenge for a podium spot.
Winnipeg teams impressed throughout the competition as all four of them took spots in the quater-finals. As the brackets played out, the teams had to compete against each other in those games, guaranteeing two Winnipeg teams to move on to the semi-finals. St. John’s-Ravenscourt lost to Kelvin in quarters but finished strong in fifth place, while Westgate Mennonite College went on to finish in eighth. Westgate was seeded third in their pool, but upset both Marshall McLuhan and St. Georges/York House on day one to take the first spot out of pool C.
Coming out of Alberta, SUMMIT—the combination of Cochrane High School, Chestermere High School and Highwood High, showed well over the weekend and impressed the competition on their way to taking home the 2019 Spirit title.
The 2019 Canadian High School Ultimate Championships was certainly one for the memory books, as it left us with excitement, upsets and the making of back to back champions. The Kelvin Clippers are only the second team to win the gold in consecutive years, and the only school to do it before Kelvin was their local rival St. John’s-Ravenscourt in 2011-2012. No team at CHSUC has ever completed the three-peat and all eyes will fall to Kelvin in 2020 to see if they can make history.
You can see the full results from the weekend HERE.
You can watch all the archived livestreamed games from the weekend HERE.
