The Warriors traveled to Windsor this past weekend for the 2024 OUA Championships. With 14 different schools represented at the event, and every school sending their top athletes, the competition was both electric and intense.
Starting off the weekend strong for the Warriors was
Brielle Fernandez (Hong Kong/Hong Kong) and Lucas Baranosk both setting lifetime personal bests in the 60m and clinching semifinal spots for Saturday. In the semifinal round Brielle managed to secure a 13th place finish in the entire OUA, whilst Lucas placed 14th overall. Brielle's time from the heats of 7.80 is the 10th fastest in Warriors History.
In the women's pentathlon fifth year
Jocelyn Ertl (Murillo/) ran, jumped, and threw her way to several lifetime personal bests. Jocelyn set personal bests in the pentathlon high jump, hurdles, and shotput on her way to a career best performance of 3189 points, which landed her a 6th place finish in the OUA Championships. Jocelyn's gritty performance also landed her 5th all time in the Waterloo All-Time records.
Heading over to the jump pits, rookie dual sport athlete,
Nicholas Cahyono (London/), stole the show for Waterloo. Nick jumped almost a full foot above his personal best and landed him 6.58m from the board! Nick is also a member of the football team so look out for his name come this fall. Kicking off day 2 for the Warriors was cross country, mid distance legend,
Hillary Clark (Elliot Lake/). Hillary ran spectacular races in both the 1000m and 1500m races. Her great efforts got her two 4th place finishes in the championships, landing several crucial points for the women's team.
Continuing on the track,
Ben Lemon (Waterloo/) ran an incredible 300m race beating out several of his former teammates at Guelph university, including Travis Campbell, the former OUA 60 meter silver medalist. Ben's debut performance in the OUA 300m landed him a 10th place finish, narrowly missing out on championship points for the men's squad.
In his first event of the weekend,
Owen Babcock (Kitchener/) put on a do or die performance in his main event, the 600m. Starting off the race strong in second place, Owen held off until the last 100m and gave it everything he had. With the top three finishers separated by less than a quarter of a second, the race was razor tight untill the end. Owen came away with a bronze medal for his valiant efforts.
Shifting gears towards the field events,
Celia Markovinovic (Puslinch/), cleared a whooping 1.69m in the women's high jump, on her very first attempt. Celia jumped away with the gold medal, further securing her standings in the U SPORTS rankings, and punching her ticket to Winnipeg. Her top place finish also names her as a First Team OUA All-Star.
With the women's high jump competition happening almost simultaneously with the 4x200m relay, a last minute decision had to be made to pull Celia from the relay to allow her to jump for gold. This allowed for a young team of women to carry the baton which gained them valuable experience at the championships. The men's 4x200m team finished a solid 5th among a very tough field.
Wrapping up the meet was the men's 4x400m relays, the men put on an outstanding performance with
Ben Smith (Guelph/),
Ben Lemon (Waterloo/),
Lucas Baranoski (Waterloo/), and
Owen Babcock (Kitchener/), coming 3rd in their heat and fourth overall. After a disqualification, an appeal, and a whole lot of deliberating the men earned a podium spot for a bronze medal. Babcock's 400m relay split was the fasest of the entire meet.
In total 8 athletes are making the journey to Winnipeg, Manitoba to represent the University of Waterloo at the national level. These athletes include,
Celia Markovinovic (Puslinch/),
Owen Babcock (Kitchener/) and
Hillary Clark (Elliot Lake/) individually while Dominik Manoucheher,
Lucas Baranoski (Waterloo/),
Ben Lemon (Waterloo/),
Ben Smith (Guelph/), and
David Gbenjo (Kitchener/) make up the men's 4x200m and 4x400m relay squads with Babcock.
Babcock is ranked 3rd in the 600m, Markovinovic 7th in High Jump and Clark ranked 7th in the 1500m and 10th 1000m. The men's 4x400m is ranked 8th while the men's 4x200m is ranked 9th.
More information:
2024 U SPORTS Track & Field Championships
CBC Live Streaming Schedule
CBC Track & Field Video
