London, ON - The Western Mustangs track and field team outshone their competitors at the 37
th Annual Don Wright Team Challenge Meet.
In combined team scores, the Mustangs secured the first place spot and collected 455 points. With an astonishing 176 points in between, the University of Guelph Gryphons took second place with 279 points.
The Gryphon's track and field team has long been a fierce rival of the Mustangs. With Guelph sweeping both the men's and women's national championships titles in the last two years, they are tenacious competitors. Though the Gryphons were missing a few of their key athletes at this meet, the Mustangs triumphant victory was highly indicative of their potential moving forward this season.
The Mustangs had top three finishes in almost every event.
The Western women's high-jumpers' swept their category with strong performances. In first was Katie Beaudry closely followed by Shaelyn Laurie who both attained jumps of 1.65 metres. Natalie White grabbed third place with a jump of 1.60 metres.
In another sweep, Western sprinters thrived in a field of tough competition. In the men's 60 metres, second-year athlete Matt Indome took third with a time of 7.06 seconds, Adam Nalywaiko grabbed the silver with 7.02, and in first was Spencer Gibbs.
Gibbs posted an impressive time of 6.90 seconds, which is a mere 0.02 seconds off the U Sports auto-qualifying standard.
Attaining auto-qualifying standard is highly competitive because it indefinitely secures an athlete's spot at the national championships in March.
Though the auto-qualifying standard is difficult to achieve, it is not unattainable. Newcomer to the team, Marcel Scheele, met the auto-qualifying standard and punched his ticket to the national championships on Saturday. In the men's 1500 metre, Scheele easily topped the competition with a time of 3:50.74.
After a highly successful cross-country season, veteran Kate Current made her track debut and took third place in the women's 1500 metre with a time of 4:29.20.
In the men's throwing events, Stuart Cameron and Christian Panhuis placed second and third respectively in both the men's shot put and weight throw.
For the women's events, Emily Good grabbed silver in the women's shot put after an impressive series of solid throws.
Natasha Gubbels threw to new distances with the personal best in the women's weight throw. Gubbels took second place with a best throw was 16.12 metres, she was trailed by fellow teammate Hannah Diebold who threw 15.45 metres for third place.
Among other impressive performances, veteran Katy Magoffin vaulted her way into first place with a jump of 3.71 metres. In third place, was fellow Mustang and rookie Maya Fetic who jumped 3.46 metres.
In other jumps, Paige Doyle and Annie Maslak grabbed the first and third place spots in the women's triple jump. Doyle had a solid jump of 11.44 metres, followed by Maslak who posted 11.12 metres.
Ayasha Horner came second in the women's long jump with a distance of 5.44 metres and Scott Billings took first in the men's triple jump with 13.97 metres.
Kyra Chang-Lewis grabbed another first place for the Mustangs in the women's 60 metre sprint with a new personal record of 7.86 seconds.
Fifth-year athlete Ramzi Abdullahi out-ran his competitors in the men's 300 metre race for first. He was closely followed by fellow Mustang Jordan Mabbot who placed a close second with just 0.10 seconds between the two.
In addition, the men's and women's 4x200 metre relay teams swept the gold in both of their events. Men's team members were Matt Chan, Keagan Croley, Grant Luke and Berk Patterson while the women's team was Kyra Chang-Lewis, Madison Teles-Shakeshaft, Bethany Suen and Jenna Gervais.
After a meet of many victories, the Mustangs look forward to having the opportunity to showcase their talent at upcoming meets.
The Mustangs now head south of the border where half of the team will compete in Boston at the Terrier Classic and the other half are traveling to Michigan for the Eastern Michigan Invitational, both events starting this Saturday, January 25th.
