By: Brant Carson
Coming into the QSSF championships, team hopes were high as the men’s team had defeated Sherbrooke and Laval in every meet so far and the women were ranked 7th in Canada and had only been beaten by Western at the McGill Invitational. After waiting what seemed to be an interminable amount of time at the end of the meet, to the surprise of the team, it was announced that Sherbrooke had won the men’s title by only two points (108 to 106) while the McGill women had lost by only 13 points themselves (150 to 137). These losses were tough to swallow since many athletes competed in as many as 4 events to try and win the overall title, however, it is important to note that the season was still successful since many athletes had consistent personal best performances and a large number of athletes will be representing McGill at the CIS Championships on March 8th and 9th in Sherbrooke.
There were many great performances, one of which was by Greg Shink in the men’s 60m dash. Greg managed a 3rd place finish despite a perennially strong Sherbrooke contingent. In the pole vault, TK Woo came through with a strong personal best performance with a vault of 4.20m that propelled him to a CIS Championship birth, which is incredible since it is his first year of pole vaulting. In the 600m, Yoshuke Hayashi managed to place 1st while running a CIS standard time of 1.20.66, which qualifies him for the CIS championships in Sherbrooke. This feat is was incredible since just 8 weeks ago he lost almost a litre of blood and was unable to run. Benoit Lebeau also had a good race in the 600m, finishing with a time of 1.22.49, which ranks him 12th overall in Canada and will hopefully qualify him for the CIS Championships as well.
Also of note was men’s 4x400m relay, which turned out to be the most exciting race of the meet where McGill’s team of Sasha Geukjian, Jason Katz, Benoit Lebeau, and Yoshuke Hayashi managed to defeat a heavily favored Sherbrooke team in the second last race of the meet. Unfortunately, luck was not on our side in all races as in the distance events Benoit Lebeau (1000m) and Ryan Beaton (1500m) both lost races in sprints to the finish and therefore just narrowly missed CIS championship births.
On the women’s side, Ria Bradshaw had an excellent provincials finishing 3rd overall in the women’s 60m dash, her time placed her 11th in Canada. Ria also finished 2nd in the 300m. In the 600m, it was the story of the Sarah’s: Sarah Ali-Khan and Sarah Millar. Sarah Ali-Khan ran a QSSF record time of 1.32.22, which made her the top runner in Canada in that event while Sarah Millar finished 3rd in the race with a personal best time of 1.34.91 that placed her 9th overall in Canada qualifying her for CIS. Sarah Millar’s accomplishment is exceptional because she had a stress fracture in her foot for most of the season and had been unable to run until about a week before provincials. Ali-Khan also won the 1000m and 3000m, while Carly Moher qualified for the CIS championships with a victory in the 1500m.
The heartbreak of the meet was in the 60m hurdles where Ashley Shumate was denied a spot at the CIS Championships by finishing 2nd in a photo finish. However, Ashley also managed to finish 2nd in the long jump, triple jump and high jump, which is quite the accomplishment. Also in the triple-jump, Dawn Creighton jumped another personal best, increasing her CIS standard jump to 11.92 and is now ranked 3rd in the CIS.
Overall, the meet was a success. McGill may not have won on the score sheet, but is sending a very strong contingent to nationals. The meet was also successful in the way it was run. Coach Dennis Barrett and his assistant coaches did an excellent job maintaining a look and level of professionalism at the meet unparalleled in the past two provincials in Laval and Sherbrooke. Not only did we have an excellent medal podium and medal ceremonies, much like the CIS championships, but the Fieldhouse had an announcer, which really improved the intensity and excitement of each race.
Congratulations to all of the athletes that competed and best of luck to the entire team at CIS!