Track and Field 1/20/2015 10:30:00 AM

Warriors dominate podium at Don Wright Team Challenge

Athlete of the Week, Reid Hayes picked up 2 silver medals at the meet (Photo by: Geoff Robins)

Complete Results

The Waterloo Warriors had an exciting and successful weekend competing at the annual Don Wright Team Challenge at Western University. Coming off of a hard meet last weekend the Warriors had some stellar results with 13 lifetime personal bests and 12 podium finishes.

The sprint squad continued to improve with the ladies dominating the 60m final. Veterans Tegan Sauer (Kitchener) and Sian Smart (Kingston) along with rookie Kelsi Darmon (Fergus) all easily qualified for the final where they placed 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th respectively. Sauer and Smart both had season's bests running 7.98 and 7.99 to move up in the rankings. Rookie Ali Elkanouni continues to improve his 60m time with each race running a 0.10 second personal best in the final clocking in at 7.15. His reaction off the gun blew his competition away earning himself a bronze medal.

Sam Martinello (Kitchener) (36.93) and Naomi Lace (42.00) each picked up some hardware placing 2^nd and 3^rd overall. Both athletes are UW's strongest long sprinters.

Other notable performances for the sprinters came from Bryton Keyes (Kitchener) (300m), James Terejko (Brantford) (300m) & Meghan Koo (Markham) (60m) who all had large lifetime personal bests in their events.

Some of the most respected performances of the weekend came from the long sprints and mid-distance squad. Rookies Rachel Bronzovich (Oakville), Sabrina Marsh (Sault Ste. Marie) and Reid Hayes (Waterloo) ran impressive races. Bronzovich, who has improved her lifetime best in the 600m with each race, ran a very smart and confident race finishing with nearly a full second personal best time of 1:39.47 to win the bronze medal. Marsh improved her time by nearly two seconds in the 600m, she'll be gunning for the OUA standard at her next competition.

In the 1000m, Hayes showed self-trust running a very tactical race. Knowing the leaders were ahead of their own pace Hayes kept with the middle pack until two laps to go where he dug deep knocking off his competitors one by one. His performance earned himself the silver medal with a time of 2:29.60 which ranks him 6^th in the CIS.

Both Bronzovich and Hayes are now ranked on the UW All Time List in their events – Bronzovich 7^th and Hayes 5^th. These athletes will be UW's finest in years to come.

A small distance squad was represented this weekend led by rookie James Milton (Kitchener) who ran a seasons best in the 1500m with a time of 4:08.24 placing 6^th overall. Although not his best race, Milton is another young athlete to watch in the coming years and has already earned his place on UW's Top 10 List in the 3000m.

Some impressive performances came from the field events this weekend. Rookie Amanda Tubman (Renfew) was the third athlete of the weekend to earn herself a spot on the UW All Time List. With a 1.34m improvement, Tubman's Weight Throw mark of 11.25m ranks her 4^th on UW's All Time List. Long jumper Sian Smart (Kingston) earned bronze with a jump of 5.04m, while high jumper David Nightingale (Kitchener) was just shy of the podium placing 4^th with a jump of 1.85m.

All four relays teams, men's and women's 4x200m and 4x400m, won the silver medal and earned the team many points this weekend. A seasons best from the women's 4x200m team running 1:44.53 ranks them 8^th in the CIS. Tegan Sauer (Kitchener), Naomi Lance (Kitchener), Jenny Carrique (Kitchener) and Kelsi Darmon (Fergus) are expected to improve much more by the next race and earning their spot in this year's CIS Championships. Lance and Darmon led the team with the fastest splits of the day.

The ladies 4x400m made up of three rookies and captain Jenny Carrique (Kitchener) ran a solid time with Bronzovich running the fastest split and personal bests from Darmon and Sabrina Marsh (Sault Ste. Marie).

Not having run either mens relay team earlier this season didn't stop them from their podium finishes. The 4x200m was led by veteran Sam Martinello (Kitchener) running the fastest split of 22.8 followed by Bryton Keyes (Kitchener), Ali Elkanouni and Alex Manuel (Stouffville). An enthusiastic 4x400m team ran with heart to earn their silver medal with great performances by all. Martinello continued to lead the squad with the fastest split time followed by Bryton Keyes (Kitchener), Reid Hayes (Waterloo) and Nicholash Bedi (Waterloo).

With over 60% of the team being rookies Head Coach Shane Ferth is very impressed with the results to date and looks forward to improvements made over the season. This promises a bright future for the team being so young.

With a hard week of training ahead the Warriors will prepare for the York Classic at the end of the month.

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