The start of conference championship season south of the border start last weekend in earnest. Rising to the occasion were the trio of Jeremie Venne, Ryan Thomsen and Tommy Nedow.
Venne captured his first outdoor conference title on Sunday, winning the 1500m event at the Northeast Conference Championships in New Britain, Connecticut. The Saint Francis University senior’s winning time of 3:45.75 was a second and a half clear of second place. It’s been a senior season to remember for Venne as he also capture the NEC Indoor title in the mile in addition to being named the Conference’s Winter Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
Ryan Thomsen was a busy man at the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Championships in Michigan over the weekend as captured gold in the two day, ten event decathlon, but also contested the pole vault and high jump for host Hillsdale College. Victories in the long jump, 400 metres and pole vault helped propel Thomsen to a score of 6413 points and a nearly 500 point margin of victory. While he Thomsen failed to clear a height in the open pole vault event, he did clear 1.92 metres in the high jump to finish sixth.
At the Southland Conference Championships in Louisiana, sophomore transfer Tommy Nedow posted to personal bests in the throws during the three day competition. Nedow opened up with a personal best 50.78 metres in the hammer throw as he finished 9th overall. The mark also ranks Nedow third on the club’s all-time list.
Nedow followed his hammer throw performance up with another lifetime best in the shot put as well, heaving the 16 pound ball out to 16.51 metres to finish seventh. Again his effort moves him to number three in club history behind his older brother Tim as well as former national junior team member Brian MacPhee. Nedow rounded out his weekend with a seventh place finish in the discus after hurling the two kilogram platter out to 50.17m.
Closer to home, Charlotte Gardner was victorious over 1500m at the Rencontre printanière Fleur de Lys in Montreal. The University of Ottawa graduate crossed the line in a time of 4:32.42, a narrow three hundredths of a second ahead of Simone Plourde. Also in Montreal, Seb Saville took second in the 800m with a time of 1:49.39