Following his first place finish in the 2015 Iron Man race, he has tackled the challenge every year since.
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The T-Birds ended a two-year title streak for their Canada West rivals the Trinity Western Spartans.
A game-high 20 kills from Kiera Van Ryk and UBC’s ability to take advantage of Calgary service errors allowed the Thunderbirds to maintain any leads they had throughout the four sets.
The bronze medal may have even more weight behind it, as UBC is set to face the University of Calgary Dinos Just last weekend, the Dinos defeated the Thunderbirds to claim the Canada West title.
Though UBC moves on to face first-ranked Trinity Western, with the way the T-Birds have been playing, anything is possible.
“Everyone was waking up this morning just ready to go. We’ve been looking forward to this moment for so long, so when it really came down to it, nothing could hold us back."
Thunderbirds libero Sam Patko earned the player of the game award, while U Sports rookie of the year Kiera Van Ryk and team captain Alessandra Gentile put in standout performances for the T-Birds.
Thomas Watson, UBC’s first place runner, clocked in at a time of 1:03:34 — almost six minutes faster than the first place finisher in the general sprint category for the UBC race.
UBC has fallen to 4-7 within their conference to open the season.
“Overall, there are still things to work out,” Gill said. “But I think the guys adapted quite well.”
For the Dinos, it would be their first Canada West title since 2005.
They needed to win against the Winnipeg Wesmen in the bronze medal match to book their ticket to the U Sports championships — they did just that on Friday night.
For the Thunderbirds, their team captain is not only a scoring presence but also a reliable leader and role model.
“I saw a lot of pieces that could come into play, where the ultimate goal in Canada could be to create a [U Sport] like environment for lacrosse."
“The first thing I noticed was the rush of confusion when the blood circulated back to my thigh. Everything was orange and green.”