Varsity teams celebrate at 83rd Colour Awards

Popov, Doggett named graduating athletes of the year

Nadia Popov was named this year's PHE '55 Alumnae recipient.
Image by: Matt Scace
Nadia Popov was named this year's PHE '55 Alumnae recipient.

On Wednesday night, Queen’s Athletics dressed up the ARC for the 83rd Colour Awards, honouring this year’s top performances from Queen’s varsity teams.

Outstanding Performance of the Year: Gavin Stone, Rowing

Gavin Stone was unable to attend this year’s Colour Awards ceremony—but he had a good reason why.

The Outstanding Performance of the Year recipient has spent this semester in Burnaby, B.C., training with the Canadian national team at their training centre. He was recently selected for the men’s 8+ boat for this summer’s competitions, where Team Canada will race to qualify their boats for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

During the 2018 competitive season, Stone won double OUA gold, and was named the OUA’s Male Athlete of the Year and an OUA All-Star. He also added a national gold medal for Queen’s at the Canadian University Rowing Championship.

Queen’s Rowing Head Coach Rami Maassarani said it was exciting see Stone recognized for all of the work he’s put in since arriving at Queen’s.

“Looking ahead to his future as a rower, [it’s] extremely bright,” Maassarani said. “I think this just shows the start of what we’re going to see from Gavin Stone.”

Jim Tait Trophy for Team of the Year: Men’s Hockey

Fresh off ending a 38-year OUA Championship drought, the men’s hockey team was named Team of the Year on Wednesday. The other nominations were the OUA-winning men’s volleyball and women’s cross country teams.

Coming out of the regular season 18-10-0, the Gaels went on a shocking run with playoff series wins over Concordia, UOttawa, and Carleton, and concluded the OUA season with a home-ice win over the Guelph Gryphons to win the Queen’s Cup.

Their run was all but smooth, however—they finished the regular season with demoralizing losses to Laurentian and RMC, a pair of teams at the bottom of the OUA East.

Graduating players Spencer Abraham and Slater Doggett were named First-Team OUA All-Stars, while goaltender Justin Fazio was named to the All-Rookie Team.

Jenkins Trophy for Graduating Male Athlete of the Year: Slater Doggett, Men’s Hockey

Capping off a week that involved arriving home from the national championships—only to be signed by the Florida Everblades—Slater Doggett was honoured with the Jenkins Trophy at the ceremony.

Flying out to Florida last week, Doggett wasn’t present to receive his award. He’s the third men’s hockey player in as many years to receive the honour, with Spencer Abraham and Kevin Bailie winning in 2018 and 2017, respectively.

In his four years with the Gaels, Doggett scored 59 goals and finished with 126 points over 103 games, good for an impressive 1.22 points per game.

Doggett was named the OUA East MVP this season after a career-high 21 goals and 34 points.

PHE ’55 Alumnae Trophy for Graduating Female Athlete of the Year: Nadia Popov, Rugby

Ending her five-year tenure with Queen’s, Nadia Popov capped off an epic Queen’s career with the PHE ‘55 Alumna Trophy.

In her time with the Gaels, Popov won the Alfie Pierce Trophy for Female Rookie of the Year, and was also OUA Rookie of the Year. Following her first season, she left Queen’s to pursue a spot on the national rugby 7s team but returned to Kingston in 2016 to take the field for three more seasons with the Gaels.

“When I came back, I wasn’t sure what I was getting into,” she told The Journal following receiving the award. “It’s really hard to leave now.”

Over the past two seasons, she’s helped the women’s rugby team to two consecutive OUA silver medals.

“It’s such an honour considering all the incredible people who have won it in the past—many [of] whom are my former teammates.”

Alfie Pierce Trophy for Male Rookie of the Year: Justin Fazio, Men’s Hockey

First-year Justin Fazio shined in his first year at Queen’s, leading the men’s hockey team to their first OUA Championship in 38 years and a spot at the U Sports National Championship.

He finished the OUA playoffs with a 7-1 record, leading the league in save percentage. For his efforts, he was honoured as an OUA All-Star and All-Rookie team member.

Fazio called the recognition an honour.

“[There are] a lot of great first year [athletes] at this school, and it’s awesome to be recognized as rookie of the year,” he said. 

“I loved every moment of it. It’s the closest team I’ve ever been on, and just the way we are as a team is amazing.”

Alfie Pierce Trophy for Female Rookie of the Year: Brogan MacDougall, Cross Country

In her rookie season, Brogan MacDougall quickly found her place in varsity competition: the top.

Unfortunately, MacDougall was unable to attend the event because she’s racing at the under-20 World Cross Country Championships in Aarhus, Denmark on Saturday.

MacDougall started her rookie year by becoming the first U Sports runner to ever win the NCAA Paul Short Run.

Then, Queen’s won their second consecutive OUA Championship, with MacDougall at the helm winning the race. She was named both OUA MVP and Rookie of the Year this season.

MacDougall was also named the U Sports MVP and Rookie of the Year, helping her team win national silver for the second consecutive year. She went undefeated in all five of her races this season.

Tags

Brogan MacDougall, Colour Awards, gavin stone, Justin Fazio, Men's hockey, Nadia Popov, Slater Doggett

All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s)-in-Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be contacted, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to journal_editors@ams.queensu.ca.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Skip to content