The University of Manitoba Bisons men’s and women’s hockey teams will see representation with the Canadian team travelling to Lucerne, Switzerland this December for the 30th running of the FISU World University Games Winter Universiade.
Running from December 11 to 21, the biennial event serves as a celebration of international university sports and culture, featuring several thousand student-athletes competing every two years as the world’s largest winter multi-sport competition.
Joining the Canadian contingent from the Bisons men’s team is third-year forward Colton Veloso. Having spent time with the Western Hockey League’s Portland Winterhawks and Kootenay ICE, the 5-foot-11, 200-pound winger has been with the Bisons for three seasons. The 24-year-old has accumulated an even 13 goals and 13 assists for 26 points in his career, and three goals and five points in eight games this year.
Fifth-year defenceman Lauren Warkentin will represent Manitoba from the Bisons women’s team. The 22-year-old Steinbach product has suited up in 96 total games for the Herd since joining the team. She had five power play assists in 2019-20 before picking up a goal through her first eight games in 2021-22 thus far. Much like Veloso, the 5-foot-8 defender had never represented Canada at FISU prior to this December.
Joining Warkentin and Veloso will be women’s head coach Jon Rempel who will serve as the bench boss for the Canadian women, while his head equipment manager Matt Relf will also join the team’s staff in Switzerland. Last time Rempel served as head coach was in 2015, where he helped the women’s team to a gold-medal-game loss in Spain.
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