Winnipeg, MB - Eleven members of the StFX track & field team competed at the U SPORTS national championship at the University of Manitoba March 7-9.
StFX head coach Eric Gillis noted, "I am pleased with the team's overall results in Winnipeg. There are some things, like falls and dropped baton that are a part of this sport and we accept them as learning experiences and move on. We did this and were able to come away with a number of very good performances over the three days."
StFX had five members of the X-Men team and six X-Women athletes competing in various events and four new StFX school records were set.
Angus Rawling, a fourth year distance runner from Calgary, Alta. came 12th in the 3000m race, after he experienced a fall on the inside lane midway through the race that put him out of medal contention. He re-grouped to run the 1500m event the following day and placed 10th with a time of 3:58.73.
Fifth year sprinter Tim Brennan (Beechwood, NB) competed in the 600m race, coming 7th overall and just out of qualifying for the final and he clocked in at 1:21.06.
Jane Hergett (Port Williams, NS) ran in the women's 600m race and her time of 1:35.19 put her in 11th position overall. She also ran in the 1000m and came 10th at 2:51.82.
In the women's 300m sprint, fifth year runner Allie Flower (Lunenburg, NS) finished with a time of 39.89 for StFX, placing her 10th overall but setting a new school record in doing so. She broke the previous record of 40.04 set by Eilish MacQuarrie in 2014.
Flower also competed in all three relay races for the X-Women. In the 4x200m, along with Samantha Taylor (Canterbury, NB), Catherine Kennedy (Antigonish, NS) and Megan Graham (Trenton, NS), they finished with a time of 1:44.14 and were 12th overall.
In the women's 4x400m relay, featuring Flower, Taylor, Kennedy and Hergett, the team placed 10th with a time of 3:53.02. The time tied the current StFX school record, set in 2015 by Flower, Bridget Brennan, Eilish MacQuarrie and Beth Lawrence.
The X-Women 4x800m relay team of Hana Marmura (Antigonish, NS), Hergett, Flower and Taylor came in 10th place with a time of 9:18.57. This time beat the previous school record set earlier this season at the Halifax Canada Games Centre by Marmura, Zoe Johnston, Paige Chisholm and Aidan MacDonald.
In the men's relay races, Brennan, along with Brad Barclay (Coldwater, ON), Eric Sutton (Peterborough, ON) and Adrian Kinney (Bristol, NB) represented StFX in both the 4x200m and 4x400m races. In the 4x200m, the X-Men placed 12th overall with a time of 1:31.55.
In the 4x400m race, they came 9th with a 3:20.51 result. This time beat their own record of 3:22.11 set earlier this season in Halifax by the same four runners.
Compete results from all events at the championship can be found by CLICKING HERE.
The men's and women's teams from the University of Guelph won both U SPORTS national titles.
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Courtesy Krista McKenna, StFX Sports Information