Bisons take flight
Labbe, Mink lead strong Bison contingence on day one of Canada West Championships
ROMER BAUTISTA STAFF
PHOTO BY DAVID LIPNOWSKI.
As day one of the Canada West Track and Field Championships came to a close on Feb. 24, head coach Claude Berube stood happy with how his athletes performed.
“It was exciting. We had a good first day. We had a couple (athletes) qualify for the nationals. You can’t ask for much more,” said Berube after watching both the men’s and women’s 4x400-metre relay team’s race to silver-medal finishes in the final two events of the day.
The second-place finishes by the relay teams capped off a great first day for the Bisons, who saw four members of the team qualify for the CIS National Championships. The National Championships will be hosted by McGill University in Montreal, Que. from Mar. 8-10.
Leading the foursome to qualify was first-year long-jumper Nathan Labbe, who qualified in the men’s long-jump event. His 7.26-metre jump in his final attempt was not only better than the 7.08-metres needed to qualify; it was enough to squeak past the Regina Cougars’ Wade Huber. Huber was sitting in first place with a posted jump of 7.21-metres before Labbe hit his gold-medal winning jump.
For Labbe, just getting out of his personal slump was enough to satisfy him. After coming within 0.01 metres of the CIS standard earlier in the year, Labbe has struggled to come close to that mark since, before busting out at this event.
“I’ve been under the standard. I was just stuck at that mark. It was a bit of a barrier every time I jumped,” said Labbe.
Also punching their tickets for the Montreal event were runners David Szczepaniak and Kristjan Hunter. Szczepaniak ran for a time of 34.94 to get through during his silver-medal run in the men’s 300-metre. Hunter qualified by finishing second as well, in the men’s 1,000-metre event. Hunter’s second-place time was 2:28.09.
On the women’s side of things, Georgette Mink continued her strong season by qualifying for the nationals with her gold-medal performance in the women’s 3,000-metre run. Mink won the event with a time of 10:05.66.
While no other Bisons were able to qualify for the nationals, there were others who put up medal-winning performances. Both the men’s and women’s 4x400-metre relay teams finished behind the Calgary Dinos to take home silver medals. The men’s team ran a time of 3:20.55, while the women’s team ran the race in 3:56.21.
Also medalling for the Bisons was pole-vaulter Vicky Robson. Robson’s vault of 3.38 metres was good for third place in the event.
Much of the team’s success can be attributed to not only performing in front of the home crowd, but also to the camaraderie and support that team members show one another. As Labbe noted, his final jump would not have been possible without the cheers from his fellow Bisons.
“I said to my coach, ‘Go get the crowd going, go get our boys going. I’m going to need some noise.’ So, we got a bunch of noise, and I went out there and finally popped a big one.”
Hunter shared the same sentiments when it came to the huge role that team support had played in the Bisons’ success. “This is one of two meets where (team support) really counts. We figure that if we get everyone out cheering, our runners will run better, we’ll score more points, we’ll do better all-around, and there’ll be a better atmosphere out there.”
At the end of day one, the men’s team sat in second overall with 36 points. The women’s team was in fifth place with 23.5 points.
The Saskatchewan Huskies led the men’s team rankings with 37 points, while the Dinos sat atop the women’s rankings with 66 points.
Day two of the event took place on Saturday, Feb. 25.
