The herd charge on

Good team performance by Bisons continues into day two

STEVE BOHRN STAFF

The Bisons had a very successful day on the second day of competition at the 2007 Canada West Track and Field Championships.

The meet, which was held at the Max Bell Fieldhouse from Feb. 23-24, drew large crowds, all of whom came out to take in the some of best athletic performances that universities from the Canada West conference have to offer.

Bisons head coach Claude Berube was very satisfied with the way that his team performed and said that overall the meet was a success.

“I am very happy with how things have gone and I think it was a successful meet. We qualified a few people to go to CIS nationals, and had a lot of fun while doing it.”

The CIS nationals that Berube spoke about will be held in Montreal from Mar. 8-10, and the goal for every Bison all year has been to qualify for the event.

“We usually send about 20 athletes a year. Of course I would like to send more, but I think this year we will send 20 again, and that is pretty respectable,” said Berube.

In the first events of the morning, the men’s and women’s 60-metre dash, Caley Miskimmin won her heat to qualify for the finals while David Szczepaniak qualified for the finals by virtue of his fast time. Miskimmin would wind up winning the silver medal in the finals, while Szczepaniak would finish in fifth. Miskimmin’s time of 7.67 in her heat was a season-best, and good enough to qualify for the nationals.

In the women’s 600-metre, Kja Isaacson, Jana Cassidy and Meghan Woo would finish second, fourth, and fifth respectively. Woo and Isaacson both had season-best performances, and with her second-place finish, Isaacson is now qualified for the CIS nationals.

In the men’s 600-metre, the Bisons had two athletes get on the podium, with Quin Ferguson taking home second place with a time of 1:20.04, while Sheldon Kilcullen was right on his heels, finishing in third with a time of 1:20.75. Both men had already qualified for the national championships prior to this event, but this result will surely boost their confidence as they prepare.

As the Bisons hoped to make up ground in the race for top male and female teams, they knew that it was in the relay races where they could do it.

The men’s 4x800-metre relay team consisting of Patrice Leclercq, Andrew Schellenberg, Ferguson and Sheldon Kilcullen came in a strong second, while the 4x200-metre relay team consisting of Jonathan Boudreau, Ferguson, David Kelly, and Adam Hildebrandt finished in fourth position.

But it was the women’s teams that really shone through for the Bisons. Jennifer Campbell, Cassidy, Georgette Mink, and Isaacson put together a superb race in the 4x800-metre relay, crossing the line in second place with a time of 9:17.26. The time was a seasonal best by over five seconds and just 0.04 seconds away from the CIS standard.

The medal was the third of the meet for Mink, who also ran to a third-place finish earlier in the day in the women’s 1,500-metre, and won the women’s 3,000-metre race during day one.

Miskimmin, Cassidy, Woo and Diana King also ran a strong race in the 4x200-metre relay to win third place.

At the end of the day, the Bisons wound up fourth in the women’s point race behind a very strong Calgary team and third in the men’s, after Saskatchewan and Calgary.

While Berube’s goal for the meet was to come away with both the men’s and women’s overall titles, he feels the athletes performed well and got to experience something really special: running, jumping and throwing in front of their family and friends.

“There was a huge home-field advantage; you can feel it in the atmosphere. The [Bisons] slept in their own bed, they are a little bit fresher and more relaxed than a lot of the visitors,” he said.

The men’s team finished in third place with 66 points, while the women’s team finished in fourth place with 60.5 points. Both the Saskatchewan Huskies and Calgary Dinos held onto their day one leads to win the team titles.

The season continues on for the Bisons, who will compete at the Boeing Indoor Classic at the Max Bell Fieldhouse from Mar. 2-3. It will be the last event for the team before the CIS Nationals.