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Lions have roaring success on track

by InternationallinkinbioUniversity

While the outdoor season may be nearly a month old, it wasn’t too late for a few firsts for Lions athletes. For veteran 800 metre runner Stephen Evans, this weekend marked the first time he tried his hand at the 1500 metres. 

Since his debut with the Lions more than 12 years ago, Evans has run every distance between 60 and 1000 metres;  however, Friday marked the debut in the metric mile for the 26-year-old. Toeing the line at the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational at the University of Florida, Evans completed three and three quarter laps in an impressive 3 minutes and 45.04 seconds. The time was good enough for eighth in the race and moved Evans to 16th on the Club’s all-time list. 

In a rare outdoor mile opportunity, Kevin Robertson made the most of it at the Friar Invitational in Rhode Island. The Syracuse junior placed fourth in a personal best time of 4 minutes and 2.08 seconds. Robertson had set his previous best of 4:06.28 in February. 

On the west coast, Keira Christie-Galloway continued her strong season at the Mt Sac Relays. The Grand Canyon University grad student placed fourth in the 100 metre hurdles with a time of 13.36 seconds on Friday. Keira currently ranks 26th on the NCAA Division I Outdoor performance list.

Joining Christie-Galloway at Mt Sac was fellow sprint hurdler David Adeleye who made his outdoor debut with a 14.30 second effort to finish 11th. Adeleye followed up on Friday’s effort with a 14.47 clocking the following day at the Bryan Clay Invitational at Azusa Pacific University where he placed seventh.

At his final home meet, Southeastern Louisiana graduate student Tommy Nedow took home top honours in the discus at the Strawberry Relays. Nedow’s top throw of 51.81 metres bested the rest of the field by more than six metres. 

Rounding out the Lions in action on the track were Joe Fast and Emily Brennan. Fast made his outdoor debut after pulling out of the 1000 metre final at the Ivy League indoor championship. The Princeton junior placed 28th in the 1500 metres at the Larry Ellis Invitational in 4:03.27. 

Brennan, who missed most of the indoor season due to injury, helped her Denison University teammates to a gold medal in the 4×400 metres at the Division III All-Ohio Championship.

Updated Club rankings can be found at https://milesrowat.shinyapps.io/ottl_rankings/

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Christie-Galloway runs to school record in Austin

by linkinbioUniversity

After spending the entire indoor season re-writing the record book at Grand Canyon University, Keira Christie-Galloway has continued to rip out those old pages and pen new ones of her just a couple weekends into the outdoor campaign. Running at the Texas Relays in Austin over the weekend, the MBA student posted the fifth fastest time of her career over the 100 metre hurdles finishing in 13.23 seconds. The time placed her sixth overall in the biggest meet of the early NCAA season.

While Saturday’s performance was also a new school record, it wasn’t the fastest time of the weekend for Christie-Galloway. The 23-year-old ran an all-conditions best in the preliminaries, crossing the line in 13.08 seconds. However, the wind measured in at a blustery 6.6 metres per second, well over the allowable limit of 2.0. 

Joining Keira in Austin was fellow graduate student Sharelle Samuel. The Harvard graduate is now studying at UCLA and posted a time of 1:03.50 in the 400 metre hurdles. 

Competing at the Southern Miss Invitational in Hattiesburg, Mississippi Tommy Nedow took top spot in both the shot put and discus throw. Nedow, also a graduate student, launched the 16 pound shot put out to a seasonal best of 16.99 metres to best the host school’s Piers Cameron by over two feet. It was a similar battle in the discus as Nedow hurled the two kilogram platter out to 51.26 metres leaving him more than four metres clear of Cameron. 

For updated Club rankings, please visit https://milesrowat.shinyapps.io/ottl_rankings/

Photo: Graham Baird

Robertson breaks U23 record in season opener

by linkinbioUniversity

With the NCAA outdoor season fully kicking off last weekend, a number of Lions athletes competing south of the border wasted no time in showing they are here to play this spring. Leading the charge was Syracuse junior Kevin Robertson, who made his season debut with a record setting performance in the 3000 metre steeplechase.

The Club’s current under-23 record holder in the steeplechase took a giant axe to his previous mark as he placed fourth at last weekend’s Raleigh Relays in North Carolina with an eye popping time of 8 minutes and 37.26 seconds. Robertson’s previous U23 mark of 8:46.98 had been set last spring at the Virginia Challenge.

With last week’s time, Robertson finds himself third in the early season NCAA Division 1 outdoor rankings. 

Keira Christie-Galloway also finds herself near the top of the NCAA rankings after competing last weekend. The graduate student at Grand Canyon University placed second in the 100 metre hurdles at the Willie Williams Classic in Tucson, Arizona with a time of 13.33 seconds. In addition to being a new Grand Canyon school record, the performance currently ranks Christie-Galloway 12th in the sprint hurdles. 

In addition to her splendid hurdle running, Christie-Galloway also posted a personal best performance in the 200 metres with a time of 24.67 seconds. Her previous best was set in 2017.

At the Battle on the Bayou in Baton Rouge, Tommy Nedow took second spot in the shot put with a best throw of 16.28 metres. Nedow also finished sixth in the discus after hurling the two kilogram platter out to a distance of 52.08 metres. 

Rounding out the competitors last weekend, Sharelle Samuel opened up her outdoor season for the UCLA Bruins. Competing at home, the graduate student placed fourth in the 400 metres hurdles with a time of 1:02.67.  

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Lions end March Break with personal bests in Myrtle Beach

by High Schoollinkinbio

With another March Break having drawn to a close, a number of Lions athletes have returned home from the sun and warmth of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina with more than some new tan lines. More than 30 athletes and coaches from the Club ventured south for a week of training culminating in the annual Shamrock Invitational to kick off the outdoor season. Over the two day competition Lions athletes recorded a total of 20 new personal bests.

Among those to set a new personal best was Nicolas Belan. The Canterbury High School student broke the two minute barrier for 800 metres for the first time while also beating a full field of collegiate runners to win in 1 minute and 59.85 seconds. Belan’s previous best was a 2:07 clocking last summer. Matias del Rio Reategui was seventh in 2:05.40.

For the second year in a row, Louise Stonham topped the women’s 3000 metre steeplechase field – finishing in 11 minutes and 23.09 seconds. While short of her personal best, Stonham dominated the field with a 27 second gap between her and the second place runner. 

Lauren Alexander narrowly missed the top spot in the women’s 800 metres, finishing second to James Madison’s Sinead Sargeant. Alexander did manage to record her fastest opener ever, speeding her way to a time of 2 minutes and 20.76 seconds. 

Friday’s 400 metre races were a battle against the clock as well as the wind. While gusts hovered around 20 miles per hour for most of the day, they were not enough to keep Zachary Jeggo off the podium. The grade 10 student at École secondaire Louis-Riel sprinted his way to a new personal best of 51.92 seconds as he took third spot in the open section. Club mate Zach Theodore also posted a lifetime best, running 53.32 for seventh. 

Picking up the final medal of the weekend for the Lions was Madeleine Seaby. The grade 12 student from Carleton Place posted a time of 10 minutes and 25.74 seconds for 3000 metres as she finished in the bronze medal position. 

For full results from Myrtle Beach, please visit

https://www.tfrrs.org/results/75548/Alan_Connie_Shamrock_Invitational

For updated Club rankings, please visit

https://milesrowat.shinyapps.io/ottl_rankings/

OTTAWA - July 14, 2021: Stephen Evans competing at Ottawa Summer Twilight #11 at the Terry Fox Athletic Facility.

Evans leads record breaking showing for Lions in Boston

by linkinbioUniversity

The Track and Tennis Center on the campus of Boston University has become synonymous with fast running and breaking records. Living up to the moniker, the venue was the site of 20 new lifetime bests by Club athletes this past weekend at the annual Valentine Invitational. 

Headlining the list of performances was Stephen Evans as he ran his way into the record books with a new Club standard in the 1000 metres. The 26 year old Evans finished second in Saturday’s race in a time of 2 minutes and 21.39 seconds, more than a full second ahead of the previous Club best set by Mohamed Souleiman in 2014. Evans had narrowly missed the record by 0.13 seconds last month at McGill, when he won in 2:22.59.

Elizabeth Vroom ran her way to ninth on the Club’s all-time mile list Friday night as the first year Queen’s University student won her heat in a time of 4 minutes and 53.30 seconds. Vroom’s performance also ranks as the third fastest U20 performance at the distance for the Lions. 

Also in the mile, the University of Ottawa’s Nina Gunther continued her string of personal bests by running 4:56.54 – a near 20 second lifetime best. Gunther’s time moved her ahead of former USports medallist Madison Clarke and into second on the Gee-Gees all-time list. 

On the men’s side, Kevin Robertson improved his time in the mile with a 4:06.28 effort, while André Alie-Lamarche trimmed nearly six seconds off his previous best, running 4:15.14 to set a new Gee-Gee’s record.

The high jump produced another Gee-Gee record as second year student Thomas Senechal-Becker cleared 2.09 metres in a jump off to win in Boston. His clearance added one centimetre to the previous record set by the late Steve Nkusi in 2016. Senechal-Becker is currently ranked second within USports.

A final school record came from Carleton’s Adam Nuraddeen who bettered his own mark in the triple jump. The fourth-year psychology student bounded out to 13.42 metres to place 10th overall. 

(Canton, United States---03 December 2022) Sydney Smith competing in the 2022 St Lawrence University Saints Holiday Relays. Photograph Copyright 2022 Miles Ryan / Mundo Sport Images. If posting to social media please tag @mundosportimages

Fast times in Boston; Masters rake in medals at provincial championship

by linkinbioProvincialUniversity

Just two weeks removed from the second fastest 1000 metre performance in Club history, Stephen Evans returned to his favourite indoor venue to lay down his fastest indoor 800 metre time ever. Evans took top spot at the Bruce Lehane Scarlet and White Invitational on the notoriously fast Boston University track in a blistering time of 1 minute and 48.31 seconds.  

It was a bit of a come from behind effort for Evans who spent the first three laps of the 200 metre track back in fourth place. Entering the bell lap, the University of Ottawa graduate was able to maintain his pace over the final 200 metres and turn an eight tenths of a second deficit into a nearly two tenths of a second margin of victory.

Like Evans, Sydney Smith also produced an indoor career best 800 as she took third in her heat with a time of 2 minutes and 6.59 seconds. The performance ranks third for Smith regardless of venue and was good enough for 13th place overall in the field of 66.

At the Jud Logan Giver Open in Ashland, Ohio, Leewinchell Jean gave’r as he ran his way to a personal best of 8.22 seconds in the 60 metre hurdles to place fourth in the final. With the performance, the University of Windsor student sits in ninth place on the Club’s U23 rankings and 12th overall. Jean also posted an indoor best of 50.15 seconds in the 400 metres to place 16th. 

The York Open in Toronto featured three Lions in combined events action. In the women’s pentathlon, Audrey Goddard (Western) placed second with a score of 3379 points while Charlotte Murchison (York) scored a personal best of 2804 points for fifth. Murchison’s score moves her to eighth on the Club’s U20 list. 

On the men’s side, Leo Wallner appeared poised to set a new personal best in the heptathlon before he was forced to pull out during the final event – the 1000 metres. Before withdrawing, the first year Western University student did manage a new best of 3.70 metres in the pole vault.

Finally, the weekend wrapped up with the Ontario Masters Indoor Championships where Lions athletes captured a total eight medals including six gold. The ageless leaper, Stan Seitz picked up gold and silver respectively in the M75 pole vault and high jump. The medals bump up Stan’s career take from the Championship to 12. 

The middle distance crew put on an impressive performance as well, pulling in four golds at 800 metres followed by a gold and silver at 1500. The 800 metre victors were Fritzlor Auguste (M30), Michael Conway (M35), Gilles Frenette (M45), and Kimberley Howitt (W35). At 1500 metres, Jay Sneddon (M30) won in his masters debut, while Mike McInerney took silver in the M55 race.

To view updated Club rankings and medal totals, visit https://milesrowat.shinyapps.io/ottl_rankings/

(Ottawa, Canada---08 June 2022) David Adeleye racing in the 110m hurdles competing at Ottawa Summer Twilight Series Meet Three. 2022 Copyright Sean Burges / Mundo Sport Images

Adeleye’s U23 Club record highlights 17 medal haul at Kane Invite

by linkinbioUniversity

Along David Adeleye’s relatively short career as hurdler, his progression has been marked by continuous small improvements – the kind more likely to be found in the hundredths rather than the tenths of a second. The third year student at the University of Toronto knocked a few more hundredths of a second off his 60 metre hurdles best Saturday afternoon on his way to setting a new Club Under-23 record . 

Racing at the Kane Invitational in Ithaca, New York, Adeleye bested the field with a 7.91 second clocking to edge past the previous standard of 7.92 seconds set by Sekou Kaba in 2012 when he won the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (now USports) Championship. Now sitting third on the Club’s all-time list, David will undoubtedly turn his attention towards Kaba’s 7.77 second best and Charles Allen’s Club record of 7.70.

Adeleye’s victory was 1 of 17 medals on the day for the Lions family, including four other golds. Gee-Gee athletes were responsible for the remaining victories.

David Moulongou took top spot in the 600 metres with a time of 1:22.85. The second year student was joined on the podium by teammate Lucas Zanetti who finished a half second back to take third. 

High jumper Thomas Senechal-Becker continued his strong season, picking up his third victory. The Canada Games silver medalist cleared 2.06 metres for the second week in a row as he was unchallenged by second place finisher Smith Charles of Cornell who finished 14 centimetres back. 

It was a sweep for both the men’s and women’s 4×400 metre relays teams on Saturday. The men’s quartet of Fabrice Nonez, Thomas Kukla-Colby, Lucas Zanetti, and David Moulongou enjoyed a comfortable 14 second margin of victory, finishing in a time of 3:26.17 – their second fastest time of the season.  The women’s team of Sia Mahajan, Brooklyn McCormik, Doyin Oguremi, and Kennedy Banton-Lindsay enjoyed a similar dominating performance as the won in 4:04.44 – exactly 13 seconds ahead of second place Binghamton. 

Below is a full list of the remaining medalists from the Kane Invitational.

Silver

Paulina Procyk (UofT) – 200m (26.04)
Doyin Ogunemi – 300m (40.60)
Brooklyn McCormik – 600m (1:38.50 PB)
Vienna Courteau – Long Jump (5.41m PB)

Bronze

Laura Cross – 600m (1:42.62 PB)
Pippa Norman – 3000m (10:49.22 PB)
Paulina Procyk (UofT) – 60m Hurdles (8.81)
Elizabeth Moreland – High Jump (1.48m)
Ella Lalonde – High Jump (1.48m)
Michael Pinnock – 300m (36.21)
Jackson Colquhoun – Triple Jump (13.57m PB)

(Langley, British Columbia ---23 June 2022) Audrey Goddard competing on day two of the Canadian Track and Field Championships at McLeod Athletic Park. Photograph 2022 Copyright Miles Ryan Rowat / Mundo Sport Images ******* EDITORIAL USE ONLY ******* ******* EDITORIAL USE ONLY ******* ******* EDITORIAL USE ONLY *******

Goddard and Adeleye open season with a bang

by linkinbioUniversity

What better way to kick off your university career than with a personal best and the fifth best performance in Club history. That’s exactly how first year Western University student Audrey Goddard started things off Friday at the Saginaw Valley State Holiday Open as she led the Mustangs to a sweep of the podium in the pentathlon with an impressive 3526 points total. 

Goddard’s new Club U20 record was fuelled by a pair of victories in both the 60 metres hurdles (8.77) and long jump (5.34m). In fact, the Merivale High School graduate never finished lower than third in the other three events – high jump, shot put, 800 metres – producing four individual bests in total.

However, Goddard was not the only Lion storming out the gate on the opening weekend of the indoor season. David Adeleye, who took home Canada Games silver in the 110 metre hurdles last we saw, broke through the 8 second barrier in the 60 metre hurdles at the Greg Page Relays in Ithaca, New York. A third year kinesiology student at the University of Toronto, Adeleye set a new best of 8.05 seconds before finding another gear in the final and crossing the line in 7.98 seconds. Adeleye was second behind Syracuse’s Anthony Vazquez in 7.95.

The Ashbury College graduate is currently ranked first among USports 60 metre hurdlers, and moves to third in Club history. The only two men in the Club to run faster are 2004 Olympic finalist Charles Allen and 2016 Olympian Sekou Kaba. 

Other notable performances from the weekend included Joe Fast opening his season with a victory at 1000 metres in New York City. The third year Princeton student posted a 2:32.06 opener to take The College of New Jersey Winter Open by 10 seconds. At the Clemson Opener in South Carolina, Keira Christie-Galloway started her season with a 8.39 second clocking to take top spot in the 60 metre hurdles. Christie-Galloway is competing for Grand Canyon University where she is pursuing a Master in Business Administration degree after graduating from Arizona State earlier this year. 

For updated Club rankings and stats following the first week of indoor competition, please visit ottawalions.com/awards-and-records.

(Canton, United States---03 December 2022) David Moulongou competing in the 2022 St Lawrence University Saints Holiday Relays. Photograph Copyright 2022 Miles Ryan / Mundo Sport Images. If posting to social media please tag @mundosportimages

Lions athletes break records at season opener in New York

by ClublinkinbioUniversity

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.

(Ottawa, Canada---08 July 2017) Katarina Vlahovic, Keira Christie-Galloway competing in the U20 100m hurdle final at the 2017 Canadian Track and Field Championships. (Photo by Sean W Burges / Mundo Sport Images).

Tough weekend for Lions at NCAA Preliminaries

by linkinbioNationalUniversity

A spot at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Championships was on the line this past weekend for three Lions athletes as they took part in regional events at the University of Indiana (East) and the University of Arkansas (West). 

Syracuse runner Kevin Robertson got the action started last Wednesday night in the 3000 metre steeplechase finishing 39th in the field of 48.  Racing in the second of three quarter final heats, the third year student was two seconds back of the leaders by the second pass of the finish line. With laps between 76 and 80 seconds, Robertson was unable to narrow the gap and finished in a time of nine minutes and 9.22 seconds. 

At McDonnell Field in Arkansas, Keira Christie-Galloway closed out her collegiate career Thursday night with a fourth place finish in her first round heat of the 100 metre hurdles. The Arizona State runner’s time of 13.52 seconds was a scant four hundredths of second outside of a qualifying spot. 

Lauren Gale looked primed to return to the NCAA Championships next month after comfortably winning her 400 metre heat at the West Preliminary on Thursday night. Running out of lane two, the six time Mountain West Conference 400 metre champion finished two tenths ahead of Baylor’s Kavia Francis in a time of 52.40. 

However, Gale’s fortunes were not as good yesterday in the quarter final. After narrowly missing qualifying in the 4×100 relay early in the session, Gale dropped out of the 400 metre quarter final almost immediately after the gun went off, according to the school’s press release. As a result she did not compete in the 4×400 relay.