It’s a meet that only made the hunger grow stronger.

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It’s a meet that only made the hunger grow stronger.

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Home for the national championships for the first time since 2018, the Windsor Lancers had several standout performances at the U Sports track and field championships.

The men, who came into the meet ranked fourth into the country, met those expectations while the women’s team, which came into the meet ranked fifth in the country, also finished four with the Lancers producing 10 medals over the three-day meet at the Dennis Fairall Fieldhouse.

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“What I saw all year from this group of kids is what we saw this weekend,” Lancers’ head coach Colin Inglis said. “A group of kids that worked hard, fought hard and battled to the end.

“I think the big thing that really stood out this weekend is I think they caught the fever. They caught the vibe of what it’s going to take to take the program to the next level.”

A year ago, the Windsor women finished ninth at the national championships with just a single silver medal from Mandy Brunet to show over the three-day event.

Brunet, who will graduate this year, upped that medal to gold on Saturday by winning the women’s triple jump with a leap of 12.46 metres. Right behind her was teammate Mikayla May. The second-year jumper hit 12.29 on her final attempt to move from outside a medal position onto the podium with a silver medal.

That was not the only standout performance on the women’s side. Madelyn Eybergen won the women’s 3,000 metre on Friday in nine minutes and 20.72seconds and followed it up with a bronze medal on Saturday as she went out hard in the women’s 1,500 metres and held on for a bronze medal by 3/100ths of a second in in 4:24.535.

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“The 1,500 at OU’s was a sit and kick kind of race,” said the 23-year-old Eybergern, who was sixth at the OUA championships in the event. “Everyone takes the first part of the race slower and it’s a sprint to the end. I find that’s not the best race strategy for me. I find that I can push ahead sooner than the rest of the girls and hold that. That seems to work for me.”

The two-medal performance was impressive for Eybergern, who started at the university as a high jumper before turning to running. She won gold at the OUA cross-country championship and a bronze medal in that event at nationals.

“The amount I’ve learned, every practice I’m learning something,” Eybergern said. “It’s so different than high jump. High jump is super technical and this you’re really training your energy system and learning race strategy. Still trying to figure it out. I think part of my success is how naive I’ve been.  I didn’t know anyone going in, so just running to try and run my fastest.”.

Jordana Badley-Castello had the third gold medal on the women’s side by winning the weight throw with a fieldhouse record of 19.45 metres, which came on her final attempt. Grace Elford also added a bronze medal in the pole vault by clearing 4.10 metres.

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The gold medal haul continued on the men’s side with A.J. Stantant taking the shot put on Saturday with a throw of 17.70 metres, which was nearly a full metre ahead of his closest rival.

Meanwhile, freshman Tristen Miscia, who missed the podium by a single point at the OUA championships two weeks ago, came back to win the men’s pentathlon with a total of 5,270 points.

“It definitely was rough (missing a medal at the OUA championships), but I knew after that I had to dip at every line and fight for every centimetre, everything I could get so I wouldn’t have a situation like that again,” the 19-year-old Miscia said.

A New Jersey native, Miscia started at Michigan State University, but opted to join the Lancers a year ago.

“Went to school in Michigan last year, wasn’t having a great time,” Miscia said. “I competed unattached at a track meet in Saginaw and Windsor was there and invited me out to Team Challenge last year to compete in the hep and I liked it and decided to stick. Last year I scored 4,000 points at Team Challenge, so this is a 1,2000 point PB (personal best).”

He scored a personal best in six of his seven events with the lone exception being the long jump where his performance was still a season’s best.

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“The team here is great, the environment is great, the coaches are great and I really enjoy my time,” Miscia said. “The claps were great. I was super fired up the whole time. I still have a lot more left.”

The Lancers also got a sliver medal from Ben Tilson took in the men’s 600 metres in a time of 1:17.63 while the men’s 4×800-metre relay team of Kai Luong, Abdiaziz Ali, Noah Costa and Noah Waldmann won a silver medal in 7:35.34.

“We’re going to lose a few athletes, but a lot of good athletes coming back,” Inglis said.  “Next year, hopefully we’re climbing the ladder a little bit higher. We had three school records and the kids brought it when it counted, at the end of the year, which is huge.”

U Sports honours Sharman

Lancers’ assistant coach Tina Sharman was honoured by  U Sports as women’s track and field assistant coach of the year.

Sharman was a former standout in shot put and discus at General Amherst high school in Amherstburg before moving on to compete for the University of Toronto and won gold in shot put at the OUA and national championships in 1999. She won gold twice in shot put at junior nationals and was a two-time silver medalist at senior nationals.

Over the past three seasons, Sharman has helped coach the Lancers to five gold medals, a silver and three bronze medals at the OUA championships and two gold medals, a silver medal and a bronze medal at the U Sports championships.

jpparker@postmedia.com

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