Big gains at track & field championship
Bison track & field athletes collect hardware at U SPORTS Championships
Improving on last year’s team results the Bison Track and Field squad made their mark on the 2018 U SPORTS Track and Field Championships. Going into the three-day event with a goal of cracking the top ten, the brown and gold completed the season feeling accomplished.
The men’s side finished overall in a tie for sixth placed and the women in tenth – up from fourteen and eleven respectively, from 2017. Bison track and field head coach, Claude Berube is hopeful for years to come.
“This was a very good Championships. This was about as good as we could have hoped for,” Berube commented. “We had a couple surprise medals with men’s 60m and men 4×400 relay and athletes performed to or above their rankings. This is 2018 nationals result is very exciting for the future of the program.”
In his fifth and final year competing for the Bisons, Kinesiology and Recreation Management student Gee-ef Nkwonta hop, skipped and jumped right into a bronze medal in men’s triple jump, his first at a national championship. Additional bronze medals were also secured by rookie, Marcel Dufault in the men’s 60m sprint another by the men’s 4 x 400m relay team.
Oyinko Akinola, third year Arts student, gave a remarkable performance in men’s high jump, leaping 2.13m to win a silver medal while on the track another Kinesiology and Recreation Management student, Tegan Turner chased down her own silver medal in the women’s 60m.
Women’s Hockey
For the first time in program history the Bison Women’s Hockey team is headed to the national championship as the number one seed. This will be the sixth appearance for the women’s program in the final tournament.
The 2018 U SPORTS Women’s Hockey Championship will be hosted at Western University, March 15-18. The Bisons will play their quarter-final game against number eight, Queen’s Gaels on Friday, March 16 at 3 p.m.
A win will set the herd up for a semi-final on Saturday at 6pm with the final gold medal game on Sunday at 3 p.m. All times listed are in central time and all games can be streamed at usports.ca.