Windsor, ON – The Mustangs Women's Track & Field team are back-to-back OUA Champions after a dominant performance this weekend.

Western's Women finished the two-day competition with 194 points from 17 medals to bring the championship banner back to campus. The Men's team finished in 2nd place in team standings with 139 points.

A trio of OUA records were set in the Women's 600m & 60m, as well as the Men's Long Jump. Favour Okpali broke her own OUA mark when she ran a 1:27.35 to take the gold medal, Vivian Ogor ran a 7.22 in the 60 to set her own mark, and Kenneth West flew 7.99m in the Long Jump.

Western was well represented in the Major Awards section, Okpali was awarded the Dr. Wendy Jerome Trophy as Women's MVP, West received the Hec Philips Award as Men's MVP and Vickie Croley was named the winner of the Sue Wise Women's Coach of the Year honour.

MEET RECAP

The opening day had multiple highlights, one of the biggest roars came when West finished out the Men's Long Jump with his last attempt at 7.99m after teammate Arman Shahzadeh bested West's top mark from earlier in the competition at 7.44m. The OUA record was previously 7.71m.

The first individual medals of the competition came when Hallee Knelsen & Chloe Coutts finished first & second consecutively in the Women's 1000m. That was followed up immediately afterwards when Justin Sanders finished third in the Men's 1000m.

Ayden Blain finished third in the Men's 60m Hurdle final to take a bronze medal, Rachel Watson would also pick up a bronze in the Women's hurdles.

Late in the day, Liv Sands dominated the Women's Shot Put when she threw over 15 metres in all of her attempts, the top one coming on her fourth attempt at 15.68m. The next top distance was 13.01m as Sands defends her gold medal from 2024.

Day two of the competition would start with the first of two gold medals for Natalie Thirsk who took the medal in both Women's 60m & 300m T38 Ambulatory races.

Sophie Coutts and Anna Carruthers both finished on the podium in the Women's 3000m with Coutts finishing with a silver and Carruthers with bronze.

Okpali would get her first medal of the day in the Women's 300m, finishing second and winning silver. On the men's side, Josh Duckman topped the podium with his 33.99s run in the 300m; he was joined by teammate Aaron Thompson in second.

Sands would pick up her second medal of the championship on day two when she won silver in the Women's Weight Throw with a best attempt of 18.18m throw.

In the Men's Shot Put Seth Edwards took the silver medal spot with his third attempt at 17.62m.

Mustangs rookie Banujan Kulainthiran impressed in the Men's Triple Jump when he finished in second with matching 14.71m attempts on his first and last jumps of the competition.

After finishing in 3rd in the Women's Pentathlon on day one, Robin Selkirk added a bronze medal in the Women's High Jump, her best high cleared was 1.68m.

Day two of field events were rounded out with a silver medal for Ian Dafoe in the Men's Pole Vault and Rofiat Agboola took bronze in the Women's Triple Jump.

Sophie Coutts rounded out the individual track competition with a gold medal performance in the Women's 1500m at 4:29.39.

The second day of competition was rounded out with the relays as the Mustangs took 2nd in Men's 4x800m as well as the Women's 4x200m & 4x400m. The Men's team would get bronze 4x200m.

The Mustangs now turn their attention to the U SPORTS Championship set for March 6-8 back at Windsor's Dennis Fairall Fieldhouse.