Canadian Interuniversity Sport – OTTAWA (CIS) – The Toronto Varsity Blues and Windsor Lancers top the women’s and men’s national rankings, respectively, heading into this week’s CIS track and field championships at York University (Thursday-Saturday).

On the women’s side, Toronto goes in as the favourite ahead of Alberta, Guelph, Western and York. The Blues captured their first CIS team banner since 1998 a year ago.

In men’s competition, top-ranked Windsor also hopes to successfully defend its team title after being crowned on home turf last winter. The Lancers are joined in the pre-championship top five by Toronto, Guelph, Laval and York.

In the only other Top 10 rankings this week, the UNB Varsity Reds were once again a unanimous choice for No. 1 in men’s hockey.

UNB is one of seven teams that have already qualified for the University Cup tournament in Halifax (March 17-20), along with StFX, Saint Mary’s, UQTR, Western, Saskatchewan and Alberta. The final berth will go to the winner of Saturday’s OUA bronze-medal game between Guelph and Carleton.

NOTES: The CIS winter championship season got under way two weekends ago with Toronto sweeping the swimming titles in Quebec City and host Brock claiming both wrestling banners in St. Catharines, Ont…. The action resumes this week with track and field (March 10-12 at York University), men’s volleyball (March 10-12 at McMaster University) and women’s volleyball (March 11-13 at Brandon University)… Women’s basketball at the University of New Brunswick, men’s basketball at the University of British Columbia, women’s hockey at the University of Calgary and men’s hockey in Halifax (hosted by Saint Mary’s University) follow from March 17-20, all part of Sportsnet U Championship Weekend… Championship season concludes with curling at the Kelowna Curling Club from March 20-23.

MEN’S HOCKEY

(regular season / playoff records) / votes (first-place votes) / (previous ranking)

NOTE: Voting for this week’s men’s hockey Top 10 closed on Monday before the start of Game 1 of the AUS final (StFX 3, UNB 2). In order to avoid confusion however, StFX and UNB’s playoff records include that result from Monday night.

1. UNB (23-3-2 / 3-1) / 160 points (16) / (1)

2. UQTR (24-3-1 / 6-0) / 137 / (2)

3. Saskatchewan (22-6-0 / 4-0) / 135 / (3)

4. StFX (18-6-4 / 4-1) / 105 / (5)

5. Alberta (19-7-2 / 2-2) / 94 / (4)

6. Western (18-10-0 / 6-2) / 70 / (8)

7. Carleton (20-7-1 / 4-2) / 65 / (6)

8. Saint Mary’s (17-8-3 / 3-3) / 55 / (7)

9. Guelph (16-11-1 / 5-4) / 38 / (9)

10. McGill (21-6-1 / 2-2) / 10 / (10)

Other teams receiving votes: UPEI (5), Acadia (4), Mount Royal (2).

WOMEN’S TRACK & FIELD

(points) / (previous ranking)

1. Toronto 120 points / (1)

2. Alberta 76 / (2)

3. Guelph 62.5 / (3)

4. Western 54.5 / (4) 

5. York 53.5 / (5)

6. Calgary 47 / (6) 

7. Windsor 41 / (7)

8. Trinity Western 40.5 / (8) 

9. Saskatchewan 35.5 / (9) 

10. Sherbrooke 29 / (10)

MEN’S TRACK & FIELD

(points) / (previous ranking)

1. Windsor 102 points / (1) 

2. Toronto 90.5 / (2) 

3. Guelph 71.5 / (3)

4. Laval 49 / (4)

5. York 45 / (5)

6. Western 41 / (6)

7. Saskatchewan 39 / (7) 

8. Regina 28 / (8) 

9. Lethbridge 24 / (9) 

T10. Sherbrooke 22 / (T10)

T10. Alberta 22 / (T10)

About Canadian Interuniversity Sport

Canadian Interuniversity Sport is the national governing body of university sport in Canada. Every year, over 11,500 student-athletes and 700 coaches from 56 universities and four regional associations vie for 21 national championships in 12 different sports. CIS also provides high performance international opportunities for Canadian student-athletes at Winter and Summer Universiades, as well as numerous world university championships. For further information, visit www.cis-sic.ca or follow us on:

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For further information, please contact:

Michel Bélanger        

Communications & Media Relations

Canadian Interuniversity Sport

Off: (613) 562-5670 ext. 25

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belanger@universitysport.ca