Men’s and women’s divisions finish second overall
Once a year, the highest calibre university athletes from around the country converge for the CIS Track and Field Championships. This year, the championships were hosted for the first time at York University from March 10 to 12, 2016.
The Guelph Gryphons entered the meet with a successful OUA championship behind them. The women’s team finished with a gold medal, and the men with silver two weeks before CIS.
Track and field is structured to reward both individuals and teams; the top eight athletes in each event score points for their respective universities. This system leads to a high level of support between athletes and their teammates, which was displayed by the intoxicating atmosphere at York on Saturday.
[pullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]…gold medals from the championships came from outstanding athletes…[/pullquote]
Head coach and 2015/2016 OUA coach of the year, Dave Scott-Thomas, thought it would be a stretch for the Gryphons to win CIS this year.
“We will be chasing truthfully,” said Scott-Thomas. “I think we’re podium class, top three in the country, and anytime when you’re in that range you try to figure out a situation where you can take a shot at winning a national title.”
Scott-Thomas continued by saying, “Certainly on the women’s side we’re facing a very, very good team from Toronto. On the guy’s side, a very, very good team from Windsor.”
The Gryphons ventured into a difficult task. The Toronto women and Windsor men were in full force to attempt to repeat their national title wins from the previous year. After day one of competition, Guelph only had one medal, a bronze in the 60 metre sprint.
The Guelph Gryphons’ two gold medals from the championships came from outstanding athletes: Jared Skeath in the weight throw, and Sean Cate in the high jump on day two. After two days of the competition had passed, the Gryphons lead narrowly in both divisions with Windsor and Toronto closely on their tails.
On day three, Guelph was not able to do enough, as Toronto and Windsor took over the rival Gryphons. However, the Gryphon athletes exhibited true tenacity in their efforts to win the title. Tommy Land made a stunning last-ditch dive across the finish line to finish third in the men’s 600m. On the women’s side, an all-rookie 4×200 metre sprint team made up of first years Katie Sieling, Hailey Hitchings, Tiana Sinnatamby, and Nicole Smith stunned observers by winning the bronze medal. Their race broke a school record with a time of 1:39.10.
“I’ve done this for enough years to know that’s a highlight of my career,” said sprint team coach Jason Kerr. “Having a group of stud athletes at the start of the year that you bank on scoring and medalling is one thing, we were just trying to get young, amazing people an experience this year in getting to nationals—and we just ran a school record, national bronze medal winning team, absolute highlight for me and my career.”
Unfortunately, Scott-Thomas was right, as the Guelph Gryphons finished second overall in both divisions with 79.5 points on the women’s side, and 85 points on the men’s.
The Guelph Gryphons stood on the podium a total of 13 times at the 2016 CIS championships. They concluded the weekend with two golds, three silvers, and eight bronze medals.