Everywhere you looked this weekend was another Lion breaking a personal best or picking up medals at NCAA conference championships from Ithaca to Seattle. In total Lions athletes captured seven medals, including four golds at their respective championships.
The biggest haul came from Owen Day as he swept the 800 metre and mile titles at the Mid America Conference Championships in Akron, Ohio. The Eastern Michigan junior started by defending his conference title in the mile, winning in a time 4:06.86 before crossing the line first in the 800 metre with a time of 1:51.38. For his efforts, Day was awarded First-Team All-MAC honours and was named Eastern Michigan’s Male Athlete of the Week.
At the Mountain West Championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico Colorado State sophomore Lauren Gale improved her record to an impressive 3-0 in conference 400 metre races. Gale, who until a couple of weeks ago was toying with the idea of red-shirting this indoor season, showed what game she can be in a championship setting as she not only took gold, but also set a new indoor best of 53.48 seconds.
Gale also set a new indoor best of 24.16 seconds for 200 metres in the heats before coming back with 24.17 to finish 7th in the final. The Health and Exercise Science student closed out the meet on the 4×400 metre relay where she helped her Rams to a bronze in 3:40.77.
Closer to home at the Ivy League Championships in Ithaca, New York, Harvard sophomore Sharelle Samuel picked up two medals for the Crimson. After a personal best in the heats of the 500m, Samuel laid down another lifetime best to win silver, crossing the line in 1:14.61. The time moves her to fourth all-time for the Club. Samuel was also a member of Harvard’s silver medal 4x400m relay team, which finished in 3:45.10.
At the Great Midwest Athletics Conference Championship in Tiffin, Ohio, Hillsdale College senior Ryan Thomsen had the competition of his life to take heptathlon gold in a personal best score of 5157 points. Thomsen placed first or second in six of the seven events, with big performances coming from the jumps where he leaped 6.86 metres in the long jump and cleared heights of 1.93 and 4.55 metres in the high jump and pole vault respectively. Thomsen’s performance moves him to third all-time for the Club and also qualified him for the NCAA Division II in Alabama next weekend.
Thomsen wasn’t the only heptathlete putting up big numbers as University of Texas sophomore Phillip Frank also outstanding performance at the Big 12 Conference Championships in Ames, Iowa where he amassed 5259 points to finish sixth. The point total was just eight short of Club record holder Telvin Tavernier’s best. Frank was in a special kind of groove as he record personal bests in the long jump (6.76m), shot put (10.85m), and 60 metre hurdles (8.34), while nearly equaling his bests in the remaining four events.
Away from the collegiate ranks, Melissa Bishop-Nriagu closed out her indoor season on a high note as she placed second over 800 metres at the Boston University Last Chance Meet. Bishop-Nriagu’s time of 2:00.98 was five hundredths behind the winner and the third fast indoor time of her career.
Next up for the Lions pride is this week’s USports Championships at the University of Alberta. Follow along on our social media channels for all the results.