Owen Kitzan – Sports Editor
The 2024-25 school year upon us brings a new year of Gaiters Sports to look forward to. With ten Varsity teams featured at Bishop’s, there will be plenty of exciting action ready to be put on display. To kick off the new semester, let’s look back on how they performed last year.
Gaiters football finished the 2023-24 campaign with an impressive 6-2 conference record, which saw them finish second behind St. Francis Xavier University (STFX). Bishop’s would eventually go on to beat Mount Allison 34-15 in the Atlantic University Sport conference semi-finals, sending them to the Loney Bow. In their bowl game, they would sadly fall short against STFX with a final score of 34-23, finishing just shy of a spot in the U Sports football playoffs.
The Women’s hockey team in only its third season, finished with an impressive record of 16-9-0, good enough for second in the RSEQ conference behind powerhouse Concordia, who went undefeated in regular season play. The Gaiters would face off against Université de Montréal in their playoff match up, winning the first game by a narrow margin of 1-0. They would go on to lose their next two games, and fall short of making the next round at the hands of the UdeM Carabins. The season was headlined by standout rookie Gabrielle Santerre who became the first player to receive both rookie of the year and MVP honors in the same year in U sports.
Photo courtesy of Mikayla Geraghty
The Men’s basketball team finished 8-9 with a conference record of 8-8. They faced off with UQAM in their semi-final playoff matchup on the road in Montreal. They would eventually lose that game by a score of 74-65, being marginally eliminated by the Citadins, spelling an end to their season.
The Women’s basketball team finished with an overall record of 10-8, and a conference record just slightly better than the men’s team at 9-7. They would square off with Concordia in round one at home, beating the stingers by 10 points in a 77-67 final score. ULaval would be the next team in their way, sadly putting an end to their season in the RSEQ finals 56-33.
Women’s Soccer would go 4-8-2 in conference play over the course of the 23-24 campaign, holding an overall record of 6-11-4. This would not qualify them for a playoff berth ending their season after the regular season.
In a league filled with powerhouses, Bishops’ Women’s rugby team would also miss the playoffs last year. The team would finish 0-6 on the year after facing off against McGill, Concordia, UdeM, Carleton, Laval and the University of Ottawa.
The Men’s rugby team would fare better than their female counterparts, finishing with a record of 3-3 over six games. They picked up their wins against Concordia, Carleton and UdeM, but fell short at the hands of ETS, University of Ottawa and McGill.
The Gaiters golf team would produce an excellent campaign, headlined by Ryan Massicotte, the eventual Gaiters male athlete of the year. The Men’s team would take first place in RSEQ, dethroning ULaval from their twenty-year chokehold on the conference before coming in 11th in total in U sports action. The Women’s team would make a push for nationals, needing a 2nd place finish to qualify, but sadly came up just short placing third in their final event.
Gaiters cheer would see themselves in their third year of existence in 2023-24. Their most notable moment came at the FCQ Regionaux where they would finish with their best placement in team history to date coming in 5th place overall.
Lacrosse rounds out the final of the ten varsity sports. The 2023-24 season would see them go 3-8 overall, and 3-7 in conference play. They would face off against Carleton in the playoffs being beaten by a close score of 12-9, thus ending their season in front of the Raven’s crowd.
With a new year of sports quickly approaching, it will be interesting to see what’s in store for all of the phenomenal student-athletes that Bishop’s has. Stay on the lookout for the release of schedules, and make sure to come out and support your fellow classmates in what is sure to be an exciting 2024-25 campaign for all of them!
Photo courtesy of Simon Swain
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