With the home crowd cheering them on, a young University of Manitoba Bison squad impressed at the 2015 Canada West Track and Field Championships, held this past Friday and Saturday on campus in the newly named James Daly Fieldhouse.
Manitoba finished the weekend with 26 top-six placements, including three gold medals, five silver medals, and two bronze medals. Triple jump and the 300-metre event were Manitoba’s two strongest events. The herd claimed two medals in triple jump, and one in the 300-metre, along with a combined three other top-six finishes in those two events.
The men’s team had a very strong showing, finishing second in the overall team standings with 70 points, just 14 behind first-place Calgary. The women finished seventh with 36 points, but were just 13 back of fifth place.
First-year standout Eric Guy led the way, with a gold medal in the pentathlon (3,663 points) and a silver in the 60-metre hurdles (8.23 seconds). Rebekah Sass, Wyatt Eyford, Melissa Richards, Gee-eff Nkwonta, Oyinkansola Akinola, Tegan Turner, and Alhaji Mansaray also medalled for the Bisons.
Mansaray ended the two-day event off with a bang, securing a gold in high jump. His 2.17-metre height was a new Canada West conference record, and left the fans in attendance with smiles on their faces at the end of competition.
Including Mansaray’s performance, there were a total of six new conference records set at the fieldhouse, such as Sarah Inglis of Trinity Western’s time of 4:16:84 in the 1500-metre event, which broke a 34-year record.
In the evening following competition, individual awards were handed out at the 2015 conference awards banquet. Guy left with plenty of hardware, as he was named the male rookie of the year, and also received the male community service award, after raising over $2,500 for CancerCare Manitoba.
