Lois and Doug Mitchell Awards: Favour Okpali and Taylor Elgersma named OUA nominees
Favour Okpali, a runner on the Western track and field team, and Taylor Elgermsa, a quarterback for the Laurier football team, are the fourth and final pair of finalists for the Lois and Doug Mitchell Awards, awarded to the U SPORTS athletes of the year. Ontario University Athletics announced the two as their athletes of the year last week.
Favour Okpali, Western track & field
A master’s student in software engineering from Toronto, Okpali was the U SPORTS outstanding track athlete of the year. She took gold at the 600 metres and silver in the 300 metres at this year’s U SPORTS championship, helping Western to the national championship.
Earlier, at the OUA championships, she took gold in the 600 m, breaking the conference record that she had herself set the year before. Her impressive performance continued locking down second in the 300m, and second in the women’s 4x400m relay. Along with the OUA track performer of the year nod, Okpali was named the OUA athlete of the meet for her dominant performance on the banner season stage.
Capping her season, Okpali was named Western’s female athlete of the year and won the F.W.P Jones Trophy as Mustangs female student athlete who made the most outstanding contribution to intercollegiate athletics during their career.
Taylor Elgersma, Laurier football
A kinesiology and physical education major from London, Ontario, Elgersma won the Hec Crighton Trophy as the most outstanding player in U SPORTS football, while leading the Golden Hawks to their first first undefeated season in 19 years, an OUA championship, and a win in the Uteck Bowl giving Laurier their first Vanier Cup berth since 2005.
Elgersma led both U SPORTS in passing touchdowns (20), passing yards per game (330.4), pass efficiency (187.5), and total passing yards (2,643), the last of which broke the program record he set last season, due in part to the three games where he threw for over 400-yards. He was named a 2024 first-team U SPORTS All-Canadian, the Yates Cup MVP and Uteck Bowl Offensive MVP.
In the offseason, Elgersma became the first U SPORTS quarterback, and only the second player ever, to be invited to the Reese's Senior Bowl. Elgersma was drafted 18th overall in the CFL Draft by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and signed with the Green Bay Packers of the NFL as an undrafted free agent.
Capping his season, Elgersma won the President’s Award as the Laurier athlete of the year in male sports.
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Okpali and Elgersma join Marie-Frédérique Poulin and Philippe Morneau-Cartier (both of Laval), Gage Grassic of Saskatchewan, Nate Petrone of Calgary, Alliyah Rowe of Cape Breton and DJ Jackson of STFX as finalists for the Lois and Doug Mitchell Awards for the U SPORTS Athletes of the Year. The winner will be announced on Monday, June 2 at a ceremony in Collingwood, Ont.