Saturday morning, a dedicated group of athletes boarded buses at 7am destined for St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York. The early wake up call didn’t appear to have much of an effect as Lions athletes came home with four meet records, including three new facility records.
Hurdler Devyani Biswal got things started in the 60m hurdle prelims by sprinting to a personal best and facility record of 8.78. The record would be short lived as she lowered the mark again in the final to 8.77 seconds on route victory. Biswal’s time erased club mate Ashlea Maddex’s previous standard of 8.85 seconds, set in 2010.
400m specialist, Devin Biocchi, also did some rewriting of the record books yesterday by stepping up in distance to win the 500m in a time of 64.46 seconds. As evidence of Biocchi’s dominating performance, his time was nearly four and a half seconds ahead of his nearest competitor. The time ranks as the third fastest in club history.
The 500m was not the only record breaking performance Biocchi would put forward on the day as he teamed up with brothers Oluwasegun and Toluwalope Makinde as well as Michael Robertson to easily win the 4x200m relay in 1:27.88. The field house record of 1:28.49 had been the standard since 2005.
In addition to their success in the relay, the Makinde brothers also claimed three other sprint victories. Oluwasegun, won the 60m, and used that sprint speed to drop three one hundredths off his personal best in winning the 60m hurdles in 8.15 seconds. The result currently has him ranked second in Canadian University Sport. Younger brother Toluwalope, claimed victory in the 400m with a time of 51.06.
Sprinter Victoria McIntyre rounded out the record breaking performances by winning the 200m in 25.06 seconds. Her time eclipsed the previous meet record of 25.50, set by club mate Esther Akinsulie in 2005. The Ashbury College senior also set two personal bests on her way to winning the 60m in 7.77 seconds.
Other top performances included Charlotte Gardner winning the women’s 400m in 59.37 seconds.Second to Gardner was Erinn Stenman-Fahey who also captured the 800m in 2:22.81. In the field, Ottawa athletes swept the pole vault as Melinda Rock captured the women’s crown with a leap of 3.30m while Nelson Cecereu won the men’s competition with a height of 4.10m. Divya Biswal, competing for St. Lawrence University, won the triple jump with a leap of 11.31m and finished second in the long jump at 5.04m.
The Lions return to action next Saturday in Montreal at the McGill Team Challenge.
