The Waterloo Track and Field team made the long drive to Windsor this weekend and had a stellar overall team performance. With 26 Lifetime bests, 9 seasons bests, and 8 UWTF All Time Top 10 Performances, it's safe to say the journey was well worth it! Both women and men finished 5th in the the team scoring event.
Kicking it all off on Friday was Nicole Schindler (Waterloo/) in the 600m dash where she set a personal best time and secured a 7th place finish in the process. On the men's side, Owen Babcock (Kitchener/), who is currently ranked 7th in the country, ran away with a 3rd place finish in the 600m, clinching the bronze in a very dramatic finish, where the top 4 athletes were all separated by less than 0.4 seconds!
This energy carried forward in the 60m dash where Waterloo saw 4 lifetime personal bests from Ava Duchene (Fergus/), David Alabi (Sudbury/), Aiden Parkins (Whitby/), and Steven Mu (Waterloo/). In the 1 Mile, Chloe Vincent (Waterloo/) ran a spectacular race, leading from start to finish in an outstanding display by the rookie, and running a 5 second personal best for first place! Her time of 4:57.93 moves her up the ranks as the 3rd fastest miler in Warrior history.
Triple Jumper Steven Mu (Waterloo/) jumped an indoor personal best of 13.51m and earned his way into the UW History books at number 9 on the top 10 list.
To cap off day one, the Men's 4x200m team ran a season's best time (1:31.72), with rookie Dominik Manouchehr (Ajax/) and team captain Lucas Baranoski (Waterloo/) running personal bests! The team managed to clinch a top 12 ranking in U SPORTS, while walking away with the bronze.
Starting off strong on day 2, Claire Vernon-Pope (Hamilton/) ran over a 2 second personal best in the women's 1000m. Nicholas Cahyono (London/), the rookie dual sport athlete ran a personal best in the 60-meter hurdles, breaking the 9 second barrier for the first time and keeping the team's momentum going!
Gloria So (Markham/) soared to a huge personal best in the women's long jump with her jump of 5.27m, breaking in the UW All-Time List at number ten.
In the women's high jump event, team captain Celia Markovinovic (Puslinch/) soared to an indoor personal best with a jump of 1.69m, crushing the competition and coming away with a first-place finish! Celia currently ranks 6th place in the nation and improves to 5th on the Warrior All-Time List.
Back on the track we saw 2 outstanding personal best performances in both the women's and men's 3000m. With Matching silver worthy finishes, Paige Breedon (Barrie/) (10:03.79) and Cam Dean (8:34.07) ran outstanding races, battling tooth and nail to the line in 2 gritty performances. Both athletes crossed the finish line with substantial personal bests, a huge accomplishment in the 15-lap showdown. Breedon's time ranks her as the 6th best in Warrior history.
In the 300m dash, Brielle Fernandez (Hong Kong/Hong Kong) ran a personal best of almost half a second with her time of 41.72.
The highlight of the meet came from the women's 4x800m relay team. With athletes Nicole Schindler (Waterloo/), Rachel Love (Georgetown/), Chloe Vincent (Waterloo/), and led by team captain Hillary Clark (Elliot Lake/), the women absolutely crushed their performance in dominating fashion. Finishing more than 8 seconds in the lead, the women put everything on the line, and landed themselves a 7th place ranking in the country, 2nd in the OUA and the fastest 4x800m time by the Warriors in 22 years! Their time of 9:12.36 is the 4th fastest in Warriors history.
Ending off the meet day, was the men's 4x400m team, where incredible performances from the pole vaulter turned sprinter William "Ben" Lemon and team veteran Owen Babcock (Kitchener/) helped the team clinch a second-place finish. Moving themselves up the U SPORTS rankings to a solid 11th place.
Overall, a great weekend! The Windsor Team challenge was an excellent display of determination from the entire Waterloo Track and Field team. With the highly anticipated last chance meets in the coming week and OUA Championships right around the corner, the Warriors are gearing up for a spectacular finish to the 2024 season!
