Arriving on the campus of St. Lawrence University Saturday morning the unseasonably warm weather may have had a few people wondering if they were competing outdoors, but the Lions and both varsity programs were in town to kick off the 2022-23 indoor campaign. This was the first time making the familiar drive down the 416 and across the border to our Northern New York neighbours since 2019 and the athletes were eager to make up for lost time as they set six meet records, including two facility records.
University of Ottawa sophomore David Moulongou was the first to etch their name into the record books as he ran away from teammate Lucas Zanetti in the final lap of the 600 metres to win in 1 minute and 25.26 seconds. Zanetti held a near 10 metre lead as the pair heard the bell for the final lap before Moulongou shifted into another gear and ran his way to victory over the final 200 metres. The previous meet and facility record of 1:25.42 belonged to Lion Zachary Meredith and were set in 2019.
Fellow second year uOttawa student Bianca Borgella was next to rewrite the record books with her 60 metre winning time of 7.78 seconds equalling the mark of Gee-Gee alum Sarah de Carufel from 2014. Borgella dominated the field, opening an eight metre gap by the halfway point and winning by a half second over teammate Kennedy Banton-Lindsay. Borgella’s mark time moves her to 12th on Club’s U20 list and she is 9th in the early season USports rankings.
Training partners Sydney Smith and Stephen Evans each produced dominating results in their respective 1000 metre events. Evans went first, trimming more than a second off his own meet record with his winning time of 2:28.20. While Evan’s margin of victory was sizable (15.78 seconds), Smith’s complete domination of the women’s field took it to another level as she lapped all but one runner to win in a new facility record of 2:49.80. The reigning Ontario 800 metre champion bested the 18 year old facility record by more than two and a half seconds and moved to number 16 on the Club’s all-time list.
The 300 metres also produced a pair of meet records for Club athletes. The University of Ottawa’s Doyin Ogunremi took down her old standard by nearly half a second with her winning time of 41.70 seconds. Jay Yetman shaved 14 hundredths off the three year old meet record with his winning time of 36.01 seconds. The performance was also a new personal best for the grade 12 student at Glebe Collegiate.
For a full list of results from Holiday Relays as well as photos from the event, please visit our results page.
