With the OUA and RSEQ championships fast approaching, Ottawa Lions varsity athletes made their final major competition opportunity count at the Lancer Team Challenge this past weekend, delivering nearly 25 personal bests and five U SPORTS automatic qualifying standards. The results across sprints, middle distance, field and combined events underscored a group peaking at just the right time ahead of championship season.
Leading the way was high jumper Thomas Sénéchal-Becker, who cleared a seasonal-best 2.11 metres to win the event and secure a U SPORTS automatic qualifying standard. After a year away from university competition, the fourth-year student-athlete appears well positioned to contend for another national title.
On the track, David Moulongou powered to victory in the men’s 300 metres, stopping the clock in 34.28 seconds to better the U SPORTS automatic standard. The race marked his third lifetime best in as many weekends, following breakthrough performances in the 60 metres at the McGill Team Challenge and the 400 metres in Boston last weekend, as the uOttawa senior rounds into the strongest form of his career.
Safwan El Mansari added another event title and qualifying mark in the men’s 600 metres, crossing first in 1:19.55 to book his place at the national championships standard. The Gee-Gees sophomore had been knocking on the door of the mark throughout the winter season.
In the throws circle, Liam Davis continued that trend, winning the men’s weight throw with a mark of 17.83 metres, also beyond the U SPORTS automatic standard. It marked the third time this season the Guelph sophomore has surpassed the national qualifying mark.
Sprint hurdler David Adeleye delivered one of the meet’s most competitive performances, finishing second in the men’s 60-metre hurdles in 7.91 seconds. He was narrowly edged by Olympian Craig Thorne of Royal City Athletics Club, who won in 7.90, in a tightly contested final featuring one of the weekend’s deepest fields.
Several Lions athletes also made their mark on the club’s all-time lists. Middle-distance runner Nicolas Belan recorded a personal best of 2:26.11 in the 1000 metres, moving to sixth on the club’s all-time rankings in the event. Combined events athlete Waverley Lyons scored a personal-best 2,943 points in the pentathlon, elevating her to eighth on the club’s U20 all-time list.
On the sprint side, Rose Basu equalled her personal best of 7.61 seconds in the 60 metres during the heats before placing seventh in the final in 7.63.
At the Pandas Open in Edmonton, Paulina Procyk lowered her personal best in the 60-metre hurdles twice in the same day. After running 8.60 seconds in the preliminaries, the University of Toronto graduate student shaved another two hundredths off in the final to place seventh overall in a field that could closely resemble the national championship lineup.
Next up for the two varsity programs in Ottawa is a mini meet this Saturday at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y. The competition will offer athletes a final opportunity to achieve conference standards and improve their championship seeding.