A beautiful day for indoor track and field:
McGill performs well at first track meet of season

By George Hadjis Media Credit: Nathan Lebioda McGill track team flies into action Last Saturday the McGill Track and Field team hosted a day-long event open to all challengers. In the first track meet of the year, the McGill squad shook the dust off and performed well for a team who hadn't seen competition since last spring. "We had some good performances today," head coach Dennis Barrett said. "Everyone tried hard but some didn't get the results they wanted." One highlight of the meet was co-captain Sarah Miller's showing, on what was a beautiful day for indoor track & field. She took home the 300m and 600m sprint crowns. No one came within a second of her in the 600 m race. Dawn Creighton showed why she went to the National Championships last year by winning the long jump with a distance of 5.12 m. The co-captain was the only competitor to reach the five-meter mark on the women's side. Creighton also went on to win the women’s triple jump, with a jump of 11.34 m.

Sprinter Francis Fortin redeemed himself after a disappointing 60m race by helping his team — which included baseball dynamo Jason Katz — place second in the 4x200m relay. Veronique Foley, a pentathlete, led the ladies' side to victory in the same event. "We've got some very good athletes that work hard and should see better results as the season goes on," said team co-captain James Chiu. Chiu didn't fare as well as he'd hoped in the long jump or the triple jump due to nagging back pains. Apart from his own performance, Chiu expressed his excitement that McGill is back in the pole vault competition after an absence of over a decade. "We've never had a full team in that event so it's new to us but there's a lot of promise in Timothy Woo to do well this year," he added. Woo finished in a decent fifth spot on the afternoon. In other competition, Ashley Shumate blew the competition away in the 60m hurdles, crossing the finish line almost a half second earlier than anyone else. In the 1000m, Lindsay Lessard gave McGill another podium finish, coming in a respectable third place. The weight throw saw Emily Higgins in fourth place. With so many events taking place simultaneously, Coach Barrett got a workout of his own. He looked pleased by his athletes' showings, however: "We have to see if we can build on today's performances and improve for next time." For more information about the track team such as meet schedules, athlete information and so on, check out the following site: www.angelfire.com/dc/mcgilltrack/