Windsor, ON - The Mustangs opened 2025 with a very successful performance at the Windsor Can-Am meet. There were two school records, one meet record, seven new U SPORTS Auto qualifiers and several personal bests at the meet.

Here is an event group by event group recap.

The sprinters set the tone for the rest of the country with some incredible results. The Men's 4x200m relay team of Josh Duckman, Kwame Karangwa, Aaron Thompson and Ayden Blain won the event in 1:28.14 achieving Automatic Qualifying standard for the U SPORTS Championship in March. This performance broke a 42 year old meet record and are now ranked #1 in the country. The Women's 4x200m relay team of Favour Okpali, Tieghan Wallace, Rachel Watson and Taya Keast ran 1:41.23 placing 2nd and achieving U SPORTS auto standard. 

The Western women sprinters dominated the 60m and 300m, Vivian Ogor won the 60m in a season's best time 7.46 (AQ). The Mustangs had four in the final with Olivia Reevie and Maya Chande finishing 5th and 6th respectively. Prior to the final, four women ran personal bests; Morgan Reevie 7.61, first year Londoner, Maya Chande 7.66, Olivia Reevie 7.70 and Taya Keast ran 7.80. In the 300m, the women swept the top four spots, Favour Okpali ran 38.42 (AQ) battling her teammate Tyra Boug 38.51 (AQ) to the wire. Tieghan Wallace was 3rd in 39.94 and dual sport athlete (Lacrosse & Track), Taya Keast had a personal best of 40.38 to finish 4th.

Notable performances for the men's sprint group was a personal best in the 60m of 7.11 for Aidan Cowell-Miller. Robbie Menzies ran the fastest 300m in 35.66 finishing 8th. 
The Mid Distance squad had a strong showing. The women's 4x800 (Ella Bottomley, Kelly Mantel, Sophie Coutts, Hallee Knelsen) set the tone by hitting U SPORTS standard by running 9:02.79 and placing first overall. The men's 4x800 (Kyle Koyanagi, Justin Sanders, Tom Boers, Ben Fox) ran a season's best time of 7:43.23 and finished 3rd overall.
 
The MD crew continued to deliver new PB's and SB's on day two of the meet.
600m:
- Cora McQuinn: 1:37.93, PB and 3rd
- Kelly Mantel: 1:38.06, PB and 5th
- Josh Duckman: 1:20.36, SB and 3rd
- Aaron Thompson: 1:20.51 and 4th
- Alex Warren: 1:23.44, SB and 9th
- Dylen Belanger: 1:23.50, PB and 10th

1000m:
- Hallee Knelsen: 2:48.79, SB and 1st
- Ben Fox: 2:28.07, SB, 3rd
- Kyle Koyanagi: 2:29.66, SB and 7th
- Liam Smith: 2:32.26, PB, and 14th
 
The Distance group also started off the year strong in both the mile and the 3k, with multiple top 5 performances. On the women's side in the mile, the Coutts twins took the top 2 spots with Sophie finishing 1st in 4:47.94 and Chloe 2nd in 4:50.45. In the women's 3k, Ashley Maguire and Anna Carruthers battled for the top spots, boasting performances that put them in good positions in the USPORTS rankings. In the men's 3k, Robin ran his entire race solo and achieved a personal best time.

Notable performances include:
1K
Sophie Coutts 4:47.94 1st
Chloe Coutts 4:50.45 2nd
Ashley Maguire 4:56.41 SB 5th
Anna Carruthers 5:09.12 7th
EJ Boston 5:09.42 PB 8th
Satveer Gill 4:25.29 PB
Robin Faricier 4:25.91 PB

3K
Ashley Maguire - 9:44.01 2nd
Anna Carruthers 9:49.17 4th
Maria Linton 10:00.81 SB 5th
Clara Fava 10:02.28 PB 6th
Satveer Gill 8:45.65 SB 8th
Robin Faricier 8:46.66 PB 10th  
 
Western's hurdle crew kicked off the track events with multiple personal bests, season's bests, and a school record. There were first place finishes in both the men's and women's 60mh races, with Adam Exely taking the men's race with a personal best time of 8.14 seconds, and Tyra Boug taking the women's race with a time of 8.24 seconds, which set a new school record. The previous record was 8.28 seconds, set by Joy Spear Chief-Morris in 2017. Deandre Williams rounded out the top three finishers of the men's race with a time of 8.27 seconds, and Ayden Blain, Markus Grant, Winston Clarke, and Omarian Housein achieving 4th, 5th, 7th, and 8th place respectively. Rachel Watson and first year, Findlay Weir achieved 4th place and 6th place finishes in the women's race respectively.

Field event results had some strong performances. In the women's triple jump, Kalista Elliott secured 3rd place with a jump of 11.62 meters. On the men's side, first year athlete, Banujan Kulainthiran achieved a season-best mark of 14.75 meters, also placing 3rd overall. In the women's long jump, Chloe Knox finished in 4th place with a jump of 5.67 meters, while Christie Collins followed closely in 5th with a mark of 5.54 meters. In the men's long jump, Zach Courtney taking the win with his final jump and personal best of 7.10. The multi crew also added to the strong jumps results with Mark Skerl finishing 5th with 7.08m on just one jump and Manu Desilets with a personal best 6.95m jump finishing 6th. These strong early performances highlight the potential of our horizontal jumpers as they continue to build momentum for the season.

High jumpers were lead by Tara Johannink finished 2nd with a jump of 1.67m and Michele Horak was 3rd with 1.57m.

Pole vaulter Julia King lead the way for the Mustangs with a personal best of 3.75m, 7th place and ranked 5th in U SPORTS. In the men's pole vault Ian Dafoe was 3rd with 4.55m. First year Viktor Iuditski had a personal best of 4.25m to place 6th.

The throwers impressed as well. In women's shot put, Liv Sands absolutely dominated the competition with a season's best of 16.09m which secured her first place and once again improved her Western Record. Rhinnah Badom, in her first year threw a new personal best of 11.30m which secured her place in the top 8. In men's shot first year Mustang, Austin Riha represented Western incredibly with Riha finishing with a top 8 performance AND a personal best of 13.16m.

Sam Morrow and Austin Riha competed in men's weight throw. On Sam's second throw, he threw a new personal best of 14.88m and finished 5th. Liv Sands threw 18.04m to secure gold. Rhinnah Badom threw another personal best in weight throw with a toss of 13.52m.

Next weekend the Mustangs host the 41st Annual Don Wright Team Challenge. The meet will include Waterloo, Laurier, Brock, McMaster and Guelph attending. The Don Wright field events begin at 9am and track events at 12:30pm.