UVic to host Canada West golf finals at Olympic View
Although it’s the summer sports season in the spotlight, the great wheel keeps churning with Canada West announcing its schedules for the 2025-26 university season.
The University of Victoria Vikes men’s basketball team begins defence of its U Sports national title — and the starry recruiting freshman class of Justin Hinrichsen, Tyler Felt, Toren Franklin will make its debut — Oct. 24 at CARSA gymnasium against the Trinity Western Spartans before the first away game the next day in Abbotsford against the University of the Fraser Valley Cascades.
Returning Vikes player Ethan Boag out of Claremont Secondary, Griffin Arnatt out of Oak Bay, Shadynn Smid out of Cowichan Secondary and the explosive Renoldo Robinson will come into the season after having represented Canada this month in the 2025 Americas’ university three-on-three basketball championship in Brasilia, Brazil.
But the first kick at the Canada West season will go to the soccer teams with Larry Stefanek’s Vikes men’s squad and Tracy David’s women’s team, in her 24th year on the UVic bench, opening conference play Aug. 22 at Centennial Stadium against their Trinity Western counterparts.
The six-time defending U Sports national champion UVic Vikes women’s field hockey dynasty, continuing a program legacy that has produced numerous past Olympians for Canada, begins the quest for seventh heaven with a road show Sept. 13-14 in Calgary against the Dinos and Sept. 20-21 in Point Grey against the UBC Thunderbirds. The Vikes home opener is Sept. 27-28 against the Dinos.
UVic will stage two conference championships beginning with the Canada West golf tournament to be held Oct. 20-21 at Olympic View with the mountain range of Olympic National Park in Washington state as a backdrop. The host Vikes will be factors after the UVic men, led by freshman star and all-Canadian Jagre Knight out of Brentwood College, were second and the women third this month at the 2024-25 Canadian university/college championships at Rivershore in Kamloops.
The UVic Vikes harriers, coached by two-time Olympian Hilary Stellingwerff, will also get a majestic backdrop when they host the Canada West cross-country championships with a view of the Strait of Juan de Fuca on Oct. 25 at Royal Roads University. The UVic women are the defending champions.
The Canada West swimmers will head to the University of Lethbridge for the conference championships Nov. 28-30.
The Vikes rowing team, with touted in-coming freshmen recruits Henry Lindig, Keifer Weinsauer, Stella Graham and Tiegan Szulc from the Claremont Secondary academy program set to join returning stalwarts such as Giancarlo DiPompeo, will look to add to the Vikes’ vast array of past medallist pullers in the Canadian university championships at the Olympic Basin in Montreal from Nov. 1-2. The 2024 national championships were hosted by UVic on Elk Lake.
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