For the first time in a decade, the Ottawa Lions sent a full delegation to the Ontario Legion Track and Field Championships — and made the trip count. Athletes representing District G, which covers Eastern Ontario, combined for seven medals, including four gold, over two days of competition at Laurentian University in Sudbury on Friday and Saturday.
Anabelle Muir supplied the marquee moment, winning the U18 girls pole vault with a personal-best clearance of 3.55m, 45 centimetres clear of her nearest competitor. Muir has flourished since moving to Ottawa last year, adding 35 centimetres to her best as she now sits second on the Club’s all-time U18 list.
Fresh off winning gold with the U20 men’s 4x400m relay team at the Canadian Championships last month, Ethan Hood got his first taste of individual gold in a Lions uniform. The North Grenville Secondary School student won the U18 boys 400m in a personal-best 49.14 seconds, holding off District E’s Julio Lai-Fang (49.39) down the stretch. Hood’s time ranks sixth all-time among Lions U18 sprinters.
Every time Jarred Rathwell has stepped onto the javelin runway this season, he’s walked away with a personal best, and Saturday was no different. Competing in the U18 boys event, Rathwell threw a personal-best 54.48m with the 700-gram implement to take top spot. The St. Joseph’s student moves to fourth on the Club’s U18 all-time list with the throw.
In the rarely contested octathlon, Parker Baetz won U18 boys gold with 4,368 points across the eight-event discipline. Along the way, he set personal bests in the long jump, 100m, 400m and 1000m.
Roan Gerth turned heads in her steeplechase debut, becoming the first athlete in Club history to break five minutes over the 1500m distance. Her time of 4:59.45 was good for silver in the U16 category. The event looks like a natural fit for the Glebe student, an OFSAA finalist over 1500m who narrowly missed qualifying in the 300m hurdles during the high school season. Gerth also placed fourth in the 2000m in 6:42.16 — the second-fastest time in Club history.
Jake Claydon-St. John added U16 800m bronze in 2:01.13, two hundredths off the personal best he set at the OFSAA Championships in June. He also lowered his 1200m best to 3:20.27 to place fourth.
Brooklyn Reesal rounded out the medal count with U16 girls discus bronze, throwing 30.50m to move to seventh on the Club’s all-time U16 list. She also improved her shot put to 9.68m in Sudbury.