Hassam Munir, Sports and Health Editor
Featured image courtesy of York Lions
The Lions fencing team came out with a huge improvement over last year at the Ontario University Athletics championships in February, finishing in fourth place overall and winning two gold medals. The first medal was picked up by Vanessa Lacas-Warrick in the individual women’s epee after cruising her way through the preliminary rounds.
Lacas-Warrick helped the Lions get their other gold medal as well, joining teammates Shadiya Aidid, Sinavy Jongepier, and Vera Leung in the women’s team epee to defeat teams from Western, Queens, and RMC.
“This is a great start in my new province, town, and university,” says Lacas-Warrick, who is finishing her first year at York as a student-athlete.
Lacas-Warrick was also awarded the Dr. Al English Trophy, which is given to the women’s OUA championship all-star. Adding to her already impressive record this season, she recently won gold medals at the 2015 Canada Cup and the 2016 Ontario Provincials.
“Fencing is very underrated on campus,” says Lacas-Warrick. “We should use the great results we had at the OUA championships to start a promotional momentum that could inspire future athletes. Our recent results could be the key element to [introduce] the campus to fencing.”
The credit for the team’s success can partly go to club coach Jason Monroe, who was awarded the Christian Vidosa Trophy as the OUA’s Fencing Coach of the Year for the season.
“Jason is doing a lot of work to build a team, a program, and a structure for us,” says Lacas-Warrick. “He has done an amazing job so far and that prize is well deserved. The promotion he has done for fencing has been crucial to the results we had.”
Lacas-Warrick looks forward to fencing for the Lions again next season. “It will be my honour to give York’s fencing club everything that I can,” she says. “I am very proud to represent York on the strip and I hope that I will participate in its future achievements.”
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