Gee-Gees see plenty of action in days two and three of championships
The University of Ottawa track and field team participated in the U Sports National Championship from March 8-10, with 12 competing athletes. The Men finished seventh at the OUA championships and the Women finished sixth, and are now ranked 10th nationally.
The Gee-Gees sported two athletes for the first time in the shot put and weight throw individual events at the national level. Ty Coulter, the program record holder and the first Gee-Gee to compete, placed seventh in a competitive weight throw event. Coulter’s best throw of the day came in at 15.09 metres long, slightly off a silver medal performance at the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Championships, and her best throw of the year came in at 15.87 metres.
Tolu Makinde started day one coming off a silver medal performance at the OUA Championships and got off on the right foot with a seasonal best 7.09 in the 60m dash. However, he suffered a huge blow by not landing a jump without a fault to gather zero points in that event, now sittings in 11th place.
The bright light of day one was provided by Stephen Evans who qualified for the 600m final, looking to build on his 11th place finish last year. He finished fifth in qualifying on Saturday with a time of 120.12.. Maeliss Trapeau fell just short of qualifying for the Women’s 600m final in her first time at nationals with a time of 131.27 which was good enough for seventh. Madison Clarke returned the National Championships, but did not qualify with a time of 131.94, good enough for ninth place.
Day two of the U Sports 2018 Track and Field Championships featured more great Gee-Gees action. Kiera Christie-Galloway, a first-year hurdler and the Gee-Gees 4×800 Women’s relay team both were close to finishing on the podium. Despite great performances, they left the championship empty handed. Christie-Galloway was in the most dramatic of fashions, losing by two-thousandths of a second. But with four years of eligibility left, the young hurdler has a lot to look forward to. The relay team was pushed off the podium by l’Université de Laval on the final lap. Second-year shot putter Christine Hertner finished in 10th place in shot put in her first U Sports championship.
The third day only showcased two events that the Garnet and Grey would participate in, gathering their first and only medal in the 600m with a great performance by Stephen Evans, who took silver in the event. The Women’s 4x400m relay team finished two spots off the podium with a fifth place finish for a time of 3:49.16.
The Varsity sports season comes to a close with five individual sports medals and one team medal at the U Sports championships.
