GUELPH, Ont. - After three months of training, Laurier's indoor track team traveled to the Gryphon Fieldhouse in Guelph on Friday for the Tenke Classic and the first meet of the season.
With spots on the short sprints team going forward on the line, it was a competitive competition in the 60-metre race, with 15 men and nine women lining up to compete.
Declan Bennett ran a superb race to finish, setting a new program record of 6.85 - only one-tenth of a second outside the automatic U SPORTS qualification time.
The team's next four competitors on the men's side also ran very fast with
Etua Kaddu (7.11), Russell Allen (7.23),
Luke Campbell (7.25), and
Justice Sewitt (7.26).
Abby Byers had the team's fastest time on the women's side, coming in at 8.04 to finish second overall.
Neve Rye (8.09),
Giuliana Mascitti (8.14),
Madi Podaru (8.35), and Anisha Sabree (8.36) rounded out the purple and gold. Of note, Sabree and Byers competed on the women's rugby team before competing with the indoor track team.
Jaden Mullings cleared five metres in the women's long jump to set a new program record while
Markeiths Flannigan also had a great start to the season, jumping 6.30 metres in the long jump and 1.88 in the high jump.
The team will now focus on the 49th Annual Bob Vigars Season Opener, hosted by the Western Mustangs at Thompson Arena in London on Saturday. It will be the final competition before the exam break.
Laurier will then return to action on January 10 for the Can Am Classic at Dennis Fairall Fieldhouse in Windsor - which will serve as the site of this season's OUA and U SPORTS championships.
