GUELPH, Ont. – Throughout the 2024-25 season, the University of Guelph Department of Athletics will be highlighting various members from our Gryphon varsity programs as part of our 'Gryph's Locker Athletes of the Week, presented by Core Power' series.
Tausani Levale (women's rugby) and
Max Davies (men's cross country) have been named 'Gryphon Athletes of the Week' for the period covering October 21 to 27, 2024.
Tausani Levale (Women's Rugby)
Tausani Levale wins 'Athlete of the Week' honours after making the convert that won the OUA Championship for the Gryphons women's rugby team. Levale was tasked as the team's kicker for their OUA gold medal game against the Queen's Gaels on Friday night (Oct. 25) in Kingston, and it so happened that everything would come down to her conversion attempt with no time left on the clock. Levale, a second-year inside centre, made 2 of her 3 conversions and missed a penalty earlier in the second half. Even before the conversion attempt could come into play, the Gryphons women's rugby team needed to not only get the ball back, but they also needed to score a try in the final seconds of regulation with Queen's clinging to a slim, 24-19 lead late. The Gryphons willed their way in for the game-tying try, with
Heather Armstrong scoring just as the clock struck past the 80th minute mark, setting the stage for
Tausani Levale to kick the Gryphons to an OUA title. After some words of encouragement from her teammates, Levale would come through on the conversion attempt,
nwith the Abbotsford, BC native splitting the uprights for one of the biggest kicks in Gryphons women's rugby history.
Tausani Levale and the rest of the Gryphons women's rugby team will head east to compete in the 2024 U SPORTS Women's Rugby Championships in Charlottetown, P.E.I, as the newly minted OUA Champion Gryphons will take on the Ottawa Gee-Gees in the national quarterfinals on Wednesday afternoon (Oct. 20 - 12pm ET).
Max Davies (Men's Cross Country)
For the second time this season,
Max Davies (Gryphons men's cross country) has been named 'Athlete of the Week'. Davies, the reigning University of Guelph
and OUA Athlete of the Year, continued his outstanding 2024 cross country season this past weekend in North Bay, helping lead the Gryphons men's cross country team to a silver medal in the team standings at the 2024 OUA Cross Country Championships on Saturday (Oct. 26). The fourth-year runner from Toronto edged out his Gryphon teammate
Jack Lehto by three tenths of a second, to give Guelph a No. 2 and No. 3 finish in a field of 100 runners. For Davies, it marks the second consecutive year in which he has earned a podium finish at the OUA Cross Country Championships, after also claiming silver a year ago (behind Gryphon teammate,
Nicholas Bannon). The Gryphons men's team had a memorable meet in North Bay, as they had three runners place in the top 10 and five runners in the top 20 to finish 2nd in the final team standings. Davies, who majors in marketing at the University of Guelph, he has now finished in the top 4 in all four cross country events he has competed in this season, including a win at the season-opening meet at the Vigars and Salters Western Invitational (Sept. 21). Davies and the rest of the Gryphons cross country team will now head west to race in their final event of the season in two weeks (Nov. 9) when they compete in the 2024 U SPORTS Cross Country Championships in Kelowna, B.C., hosted by UBC Okanagan.
2024-25 Gryphon Athletes of the Week
| Name |
Sport |
Date |
| Tausani Levale |
Women's Rugby |
Oct. 21-27, 2024 |
| Max Davies |
Men's Cross Country |
Oct. 21-27, 2024 |
| Jacob Findlay |
Men's Soccer |
Oct. 14-20, 2024 |
| Delaney Jacklin |
Field Hockey |
Oct. 14-20, 2024 |
| Alexie Oliver |
Women's Hockey |
Oct. 7-13, 2024 |
| Duncan Penman |
Men's Hockey |
Oct. 7-13, 2024 |
| Jacqueline Giles |
Women's Golf |
Sept. 30-Oct 6, 2024 |
| Joe Columbus |
Men's Lacrosse |
Sept. 30-Oct 6, 2024 |
| Owen Ellis |
Baseball |
Sept. 23-29, 2024 |
| Addy Holmes |
Women's Rugby |
Sept. 23-29, 2024 |
| Max Davies |
Men's Cross Country |
Sept. 16-22, 2024 |
| Olivia Rizakos |
Women's Soccer |
Sept. 16-22, 2024 |
| Tomas Dallan |
Men's Rugby |
Sept. 9-15, 2024 |
| Jacqueline Giles |
Women's Golf |
Sept. 9-15, 2024 |
| Liam Bowman |
Men's Rugby |
Sept. 2-8, 2024 |
| Taylor McKnight |
Women's Rugby |
Sept. 2-8, 2024 |
| Olivia Brown |
Women's Soccer |
Aug. 26-Sept. 1, 2024 |
| Matthew Glavanov |
Men's Soccer |
Aug. 26-Sept. 1, 2024 |
