The Mustang track and field teams continued their successful season with impressive results at the 17th Annual McGill Team Challenge. The meet is considered as the most competitive meet in Eastern Canada. All of the Quebec schools, Atlantic Conference and most OUA schools as well as the University of Alberta competed.
The Women won the Women's team title finishing with 68 points, 23 ahead of 2nd place University of Toronto. The men placed 2nd with 57 points, 12 points behind York. With only one of Western's throwers competing York was able to pick up big points in both the men's shot put and weight throw. Our throwers opted to compete at the University of Findlay in order to gain a different competitive experience.
The women had 17 top six finishes (scoring positions) compiling two gold medals, four silvers and three bronze medals. Highlights included the women achieving CIS standard in the 4 X 800m running the 5th best time in Western history. The team of
Courtney Long,
Melissa Caruso,
Jen Bays and
Katie Bell all ran between 2:15 and 2:17 to finish in 9:04.81. The 4 X 200m also took gold. The team of
Brenna Thomson (25.1),
Cassandra McCaig (24.8),
Sarah Clancy (25.5) and
Caroline Ehrhardt (25.9) improved their CIS leading time to 1:41.56 and #7 all-time.
Silver medal efforts were put in by
Courtney Olah and
Jen Pitman who both jumped 1.65m in the high jump. Ehrhardt jumped 5.61m in the long jump and
Emily Goad posted a personal best leap of 11.67m in the triple jump. Bronze medal efforts were placed by
Julie Hambleton in the 3000m (10:25.45),
Sharon Michalak in the pole vault (3.25m) and
Mila Simulik in the long jump (5.49m).
The men had 13 top six finishes including three golds, four silvers and two bronze medals. The most outstanding performance of the meet was the impressive winning run of the 4 X 800m team (7:37.56). The team of
Matt Muldoon (1:55.6),
Ryan Armstrong (1:54.8),
Scott Leitch (1:52.1) and
Trent Sayers (1:54.8) posted the #2 time in Western history, achieved CIS standard and now lead the CIS.
Carl Shen continued his triple jump success with a 14.09m personal best and winning performance. Rookie Thomas Bedarik also continues to show consistency by jumping 6.94m to win the long jump.
Miguel Wason -- the 2008 CIS silver medalist in the 300m -- made his 300m debut posting a conservative time 34.48 (#3 time in the CIS). Wason got his nervousness out of the way and demonstrated that he will be a contender in this event come Championship time.
The 4 X 200m team of Wason(22.0),
Elias Granillo (21.5),
Brayden Bullen(21.9) and
Matt Brisson (22.5) improved their season's best time to 1:28.10 staying at the #2 spot in the country. Also making his track debut in his premier event was Kyle O'Neillin the 3000m. Our Western record holder, "Real Deal" ran 8:28.62 to move him to #7 in the CIS in this highly competitive event.
Brisson also finished 2nd in the 60m hurdles with his 2nd best time of the season (8.08).
Drew Welch and
Chris Cauley both won bronze medals in the shot put (15.32m) and high jump (1.93m) respectively. Leitch, a two-time CIS 600m Champion, also made his debut and posted a very respectable 1:20.18 in a tactical race where he finished 4th with just .29 seconds separating the top four.
Next weekend the Mustangs have a split squad with about 20 athletes competing at the Meyo Invitational at Notre Dame and the rest of the team travelling to the York Open at York University.
