While Murphy’s Law was in effect from a transportation perspective; the small crew of Gold Gaels who made the trek came up big performance wise bringing home one silver medal; 3 ALL TIME TOP TEN performances; 3 OUA TOP 8 standard performances; 3 high performance standards; 5 OUA standard performances; and 13 PB’s.  See below if you want the saga of the trip from hell…

OUA TOP 8 STANDARD ACHIEVERS

ALL TIME TOP TEN PERFORMANCES

VERONICA CATRY:  60m heats – 7.91, PB, #5 ALL TIME; 60m final – 7.85, PB, #3 ALL TIME; SILVER MEDAL

Regi graduate and Queen’s rookie, Veronica Catry was at it again – four 60m races in the tricolour, 4 PB’s and 4 ALL TIME TOP TEN performances.  She went #8 and #6 at McGill last week; this week #5 and #3.  Coach Wayne Bulak believes there’s still a lot Veronica can work on, so if she stays healthy, expect even faster times from her.  It seems all the more likely that the Queen’s Record set by Dupe Oyewumi last year (7.79) is living on borrowed time.  Veronica was seeded #7 coming into the meet.  She destroyed her heat, winning by a country mile to qualify #3 for the final.  In the final she was running 8^th for the first part then seemed to put it into overcharge and blasted up through the field to secure the silver.  Veronica now has a bronze and silver medal after two meets; sooner or later she’ll have a match set.

KURTIS NISHIYAMA:  HIGH JUMP – 1.94m, PB, #8 ALL TIME; 7^TH

Kurtis rebounded from his no height at McGill in style popping a new PB and having two excellent goes at 1.99m.  His focus on strength work through the fall is returning benefits.  Kurtis clearly has more “ups” in him, so hopefully we can see a few more PB’s before the season is out.

MIKEY PRIME:  300m – 36.09, PB, #10 ALL TIME, 9^th; 4x400m – 51.8, PB, 4^th

This talented rookie from Ottawa more than backed up his McGill effort; he eclipsed it and in the process achieved automatic qualification to OUA’s and a place on Queen’s all time rankings.  Mikey was ranked 22^nd based on seed performances.  Mikey came back a while later blasting the Gaels into a huge lead in the second section of the 4x400m relay taking 0.9 seconds off his old 4x4 performance.

HIGH PERFORMANCE STANDARD ACHIEVERS

JEN TAM:  60m – 8.20, 17^TH

Jen had already achieve the high performance standard at McGill with her 8.25 second effort but improved on it.  Jen just missed out on earning a final berth by 0.01 seconds.

JAN STIRLING:  60m – 8.23, PB, 20^TH

Jan is more noted for her 300m running, but can turn it over in the short stuff.  Jan entered the event ranked 46^th so surprised a number of people with her PB run.  Unfortunately she tweaked something during the 60m and wasn’t able to run in the 300m.

ADRIAN HELLER:  300m – 36.64, PB, 14^th; 60m – 7.37, PB, 32^nd; 4x400m – 51.3, PB, 4^th

Adrian had a 3 PB day.  Now those of you more astute are probably going, but he was listed as achieving this standard with a PB of 36.43 at McGill, how can he now have a PB of 36.64; well I took his time off the finishing clock and found out later he’d been disqualified; so now it is 100% official – a PB and the high performance standard.  Adrian was ranked 24^th in the 300m based on seed performance.  Running third on the 4x4 he had a huge lead but down the back straight heard the crowd roar, thinking someone was closing on him; he shifted gears and got the stick off to Adam with a new 4x400m best time.  He also broke out of the 7.44 second 60m rut… every race last season his time was 7.44.

OUA STANDARD ACHIEVERS

GORD FRENKE:  300m – 37.53, 26^th

Gord picked up another event to go with his 60mH.  He came in ranked 69^th and finished 26^th due to an outstanding effort that had him finish 2^nd in his heat.

MICHELE KRECH:  60mH heats – 9.59, 8^th; 60mH final – 9.72, 11^th

Michele clipped 0.11 off her time from McGill so is definitely moving in a positive direction performance wise.

PAULIINA BERETTA:  60m – 8.27, PB, 24^TH

Rookie Pauliina Beretta keeps chipping off time each time she steps into the blocks.  Pauliina blistered out of the blocks and had a sizable lead after 30m but the field closed on her, and she ended up 3^rd in the heat.

LAUREN ZINTEL:  LONG JUMP – 5.08m, 10^TH

Lauren has posted two meets at 5m thus far this season.  She is now consistent at a level she hoped to break last year.  Consistency is the breeding ground for a big break through effort.  The horizontal jumpers have not done a lot of “sharp” work yet.  Once they get a solid base of practices in with maximal effort jumps I think it’s safe to say there’s a big jump brewing…

ADRIAN HELLER:  60m – 7.37, PB

NOTEABLE PERFORMERS

JOCELYN POIRIER:  60mH heats – 9.94; 60mH final – 9.85; 60m – 8.45; 300m – 44.95

Jocelyn has had back-to-back meets with PB’s in the heat then again final of the 60mH.  Considering she hasn’t had much track specific work, coming to us from rugby this is a phenomenal start to her sophomore season.  Jocelyn ran her first 300m in tri-colour posting a very solid effort of 44.95.

ATHLETES OF THE MEET

VERONICA CATRY and KURTIS NISHIYAMA:  Veronica was an easy pick – had to argue with 2 PB’s; 2 ALL TIME performances and a SILVER medal.  It was a much more difficult task to pick the male athlete of the meet (MAM).  While strong cases could be made for Adrian Heller or Mikey Prime to be the MAM; a superb jumping performance, highest individual finisher next to Veronica, and #8 ALL TIME, earned Kurtis the nod.

PERSONAL BESTS:  13

Pauliina Beretta:  60m – 8.27         old 8.32

Veronica Catry:  60m – 7.91          old 7.96

Veronica Catry:  60m – 7.85          old 7.91

Jocelyn Poirier:  60mH – 9.94         old 9.98

Jocelyn Poirier:  60mH – 9.85         old 9.94

Jan Stirling:  60m – 8.23               old 8.31

Adam Campigotto:  4x400m – 52.8  old 53.2

Adrian Heller:  300m – 36.64          old 36.90

Adrian Heller:  60m – 7.37             old 7.44

Adrian Heller:  4x400m – 51.3         old 51.4

Kurtis Nishiyama:  HJ – 1.94m         old 1.90m

Mikey Prime:  300m – 36.09           old 36.33

Mikey Prime:  4x400m – 51.8          old 52.7

THE TRIP FROM HELL…

We should have known we were in for a rough time when we stood freezing out at the Courthouse for about an hour awaiting pick-up.  Accidents on the 401 had delayed the driver by about an hour.  We manage to get to the border where our driver inadvertently gets in the truck lane instead of the bus lane… which meant a 45-minute wait before a border guard ventured our way.  We got to the hotel more than 2-hours later than expected, but we got there!  Next day because of bus hours, we pre-book two taxis to take the 60m hurdlers, long jumpers and women’s 60m participates up early; coaches Wayne and Ted in charge.  The rest of us are supposed to go up on the bus at 10:30am.  Well at 10:20am the driver comes in and announces the bus wont start and not to worry he’s called for a boost.  The tow truck arrives quickly.  After giving them about 10 minutes I wander out to see what’s up.  Given that they were looking high and low for back up batteries; I made the decision to call for a cab to get the next crew up to the track.  Realizing the bus wasn’t going to start any time soon, we call for another cab.  Well weather at this stage wasn’t great so it took 30-minutes for the first cab to arrive – off it goes; 45-minutes later the other final arrives.  So we’re all safely up at the track leaving our bus driver to get the bus going.  About 4:30pm I decide maybe it would be a good idea to see how things were going with the bus.  A BIG THANK YOU GOES OUT TO CARL GEORGEVSKI FROM U OF T.  He loaned me his cell phone.  The call is made; the bus is DEAD, another has been sent out from Toronto, theoretically it was in Rochester, 45-minutes earlier… so no worries, Carl indicated that’s about 30-minutes from Cornell – so it should be waiting for us at our pre-arranged pick up time of 5:30pm.  For a huge meet, they were only 30-minutes off schedule and we didn’t feel too bad about that given the situation.  So when Coach Ted wanders out to see where the bus is at 6pm and it’s nowhere in sight; there’s a slight uneasy feeling.  Carl once again lends us his cell phone; the bus is still somehow 45-minutes away.  We debate about sending the kids off to the cafeteria to eat (about a 20-min hike) and figure no, the bus will be here in 45-min it’s not worth the effort.  The track is now empty – everyone has gone, they’re cleaning it and security is locking up; fortunately they take pity on us poor Canadians and don’t kick us out in the cold.  At 7pm and no bus in sight we long jumper Christine offers up her phone and we call again.  Still no bus, not sure what’s going on; we try calling the depot – phone seemed to be off the hook as all we got was a busy signal.  Just before 7:30pm when we had decided okay let’s cab it back to the hotel, scatter and eat and the bus can take us from there we call the bus driver to alert him we’re coming to him and to stay put… the bus is there!  It’s a 15-min drive from the hotel to the track… 25-min later still no driver; another call – “where are you???”  “Coming, 5-minutes away”… this time that meant 15-minutes, but finally he arrives.  I had decided given how things have gone so far maybe I should be out on the corner to flag him down as he might go cruising on by – good call as that is what would have happened.  Fortunately that’s where the tale ends… totally uneventful trip home, just much, much later than expected.  So now I’m in debt to Carl for a few drinks at CI’s and Christine as we ran up a pretty good cell phone charge trying to find out what was happening with our driver.