The Gryphon men’s and women’s track and field teams competed at the OUA Championships this past weekend. The Gryphon men finished in a tie for second while the Gryphon women finished third overall.
Like any Championship meet involving 34 events the weekend was filled with it’s series of ups and downs. The Gryphons had many highlights including their first ever sweep of the podium in the men’s weight throw led by Dustin McCrank as well as placing three athletes in the top four in each of the 3000 metre races.
One of the most encouraging signs of the weekend for the Gryphons was the emergence of several rookies. Four Gryphon rookies brought home medals led by Jason Diston’s victory in the men’s pentathlon. Also, bringing home medals for the Gryphon rookies were Mike Lopatowski silver in the men’s high jump, Genevieve Lalonde bronze in the women’s 3000 metres and Brent Roubos bronze in the men’s weight throw.
Overall the Gryphons came away with 19 medals, in addition to McCrank and Diston’s gold medal performance, Sarah Peirce captured the women’s 60 metres, while Kyle Boorsma and Rachel Cliff captured the gold in the men’s 3000 and women’s 1500 metres respectively. Boorsma and Cliff added silver medal to their gold with Boorsma capturing the silver in the 1500 metres and Cliff in the 3000 meters. Jess Vanhie joined Cliff on the podium of the women’s 1500 metres with a silver and helped the women’s 4 x 800 metre relay to a silver medal as well. Tim Hendry was also a double silver medalist as he was part of the weight throw sweep and added a silver in the men’s shot put. While Shaneista Haye matched Lopatowksi’s silver with one of her own in the women’s high jump.
In addition to Roubos and Lalonde’s bronze medals, Allan Brett matched his bronze from last year in the 3000 metres, while Guyson Kuruneri captured the bronze in the men’s long jump. Rounding out the medals for the Gryphons were Brit Herd’s bronze in the women’s weight throw and the men’s 4 x 800 metre relay.
The Gryphons will now gear up for the CIS Championships in two weeks time at the University of Windsor.
Results are available at http://www.yorku.ca/sprtyork/ouatrack/2010/results/day2/
Chris Moulton
University of Guelph
Track and Field
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