It was another outstanding outcome for the Dinos at the track Feb. 9–10. The team attended the Alberta High Performance meet in Edmonton where they competed against top athletes from across the country.
The men’s team is currently in seventh and the women’s team is second in the country.
"We have a talented and strong team this year," said Assistant Coach Doug Lamont. "We’re in a very strong position to win the Canada West Championships, and have a great shot at CIS."
Being an open event, most of the athletes were not university students and yet the Dinos still exceeded everyone’s expectations. Samantha Anderson won high jump and qualified for the Canadian Interuniversity Sport national championships. Melissa Van Hal and Trevor Philips also qualified for CIs in the pentathlon. Van Hal finished third with a score of 3,533. She was the top university athlete in the event. Philips’ 3,539 was good enough for fourth. Dino alumnus James Holder won the pent and is now first ranked in the country. Other qualifiers for nationals were the men’s and women’s 4X400m relays with times of 3:20.74 and 3:54.70, respectively and both teams came in first. Amy Barnett qualified in the 600m.
Obviously, everyone is pleased and the atmosphere at the track is energized.
"The athletes are probably more excited than we are," said Lamont. "I haven’t seen such great sport-smanship in a long time."
Last year at Canada Wests the team was narrowly defeated by the University of Saskatchewan, however, this year they are stronger and looking to take the title away from the tired sled dogs.
"We’ve picked up some really strong rookies and the veterans have really gotten the job done this year," said Lamont. "We hope to see the results of that in Saskatoon this year."
The Dinos have this weekend off, and then it’s on to the championships. Canada Wests are Feb. 22 and 23 in Saskatoon, then the CIS championship is Mar. 8–10 in Sherbrooke, P.Q. Don’t be surprised if they bring home a title or two this year.