At the uOttawa Winter Invitational last Saturday, the Gee-Gees track & field team played host to a variety of collegiate teams and clubs in an action packed event at the Dome at Louis-Riel.
A fantastic season for fourth-year runner Stephen Evans continued on the weekend with two notable results in the 600m and 800m events.
With a time of 1:52.43 in the 800, Evans bested the school's previous record of 1:53.20 set by Mohamed Souleiman in 2014. In the 600m, Evans posted a time of 1:19.15, good enough to place him second in school history, just seven tenths of a second behind record-holder Michael Robinson's mark set in 2008.
Stephanie Gould and Kira Christine-Galloway's sub 8-second times in the 60m sprint were personal bests. Christine-Galloway also broke into uOttawa's top 10 fastest times in the 300m event with a time of 40.61 seconds.
Furthermore, Christine-Galloway moved up into fourth in school history with a blazing fast 8.53-second performance in the women's 60m hurdles. She grabbed the win in the finals with a 8.62-second run. In the men's 60m hurdles, Tolu Makinde won the event and set a personal best of 8.77 seconds.
Xavier Takam's time of 7:14 seconds in the men's 60m was a personal best, despite only landing him seventh-place in the finals.
The Gee-Gees swept podium position in the women's 600m event with Maeliss Trapeau, Sophia Skorenky, and Marie-Eve Dahms finishing first through third. Madison Clarke and Samantha Klus finished first and second in the 1500m and set personal bests with times of 4:42.96 and 4:44.49.
Ottawa also swept the women's 800m event with Klus and Skorenky finishing first and second and setting personal bests. Rebecca Brennan finished in third to round out the Gee-Gees' dominance in the event.
In relay, the Gee-Gees "A" squad won the women's 4x400m event with a time of 4:05.94, while the men came third, running 3:36.67.
On the field side, Christina Hertner continued her solid season in the shot put, throwing 11.53m, which added another line under her name in the record books, as it was her fifth- furthest throw overall, and second furthest this season.
Heather Smith won the pole vault with a 3.01m result. Though not a personal best, Smith added a second entry to the record book behind her 3.10m best set in November.
This weekend, Gee-Gees track & field will have representatives at various meets on both sides of the border.
On Friday action at the BU John Thomas Terrier Classic in Boston, the Dr. Sander Invitational in New York City, and the McGill Team invitational in Montreal will get underway. On Saturday, action in Boston and Montreal wraps up, while the Columbia Challenge in New York City, and the Cornell Kane Invitational in Ithaca, NY get started. Results and updates will be posted on Twitter at @geegees_trackxc.
