The 2008 CIS Championships proved to be a fruitful one for Queen’s and will go down as one of the tightest overall championships in CIS Track and Field history.  Queen’s came home with 3 medals (2 silver and a bronze), a QUEEN’S RECORD, a #2, two #4’s, a #5 and a #10 ALL TIME performances.  Sixteen out of a possible 19 PB’s were recorded. 


THURSDAY, MARCH 6

VERONICA CATRY:  60m @ 7.80, 11th

Rookie Veronica Catry took things in stride at her first CIS Championships.  She was hoping to make the final but that would have required her to run 7.70 and eclipse her Queen’s Record of 7.74 seconds.  Her time of 7.80 was her 5th fastest time ever, the 6th fastest ever in school history (Veronica owns #1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, and 10 ALL TIME 60m times), and the fastest ever at CIS Championships by a Queen’s athlete by 0.09 seconds. 


FRIDAY, MARCH 7

WOMEN’S 4x200m RELAY:  1:43.90, #2 ALL TIME  [VERONICA CATRY (24.9, PB), JEN TAM (25.6, PB), MICHELE KRECH (26.8, PB), and ANGELA KING (26.3, PB)]

The women’s 4x200m relay came in ranked 12th @ 1:45.77; the four women all ran substantial personal bests and ended up 11th in posting the #2 ALL TIME 4x200m time in school history 1:43.90.  Four PB’s an overall improvement of 2-seconds and a placing improvement; not much else the gals could have done – they clearly showed they belonged at the 2008 CIS Championships! 


MEN’S 1000m:  BRADEN NOVAKOWSKI @ 2:25.45, SILVER, #4 ALL TIME, PB

                            MATT HULSE @ 2:25.58, BRONZE, #5 ALL TIME, PB

Braden and Matt recorded a Queen’s historic first going SILVER and BRONZE in the men’s 1000m.  Matt came in the 3rd seed and held position posting a 1-second PB.  Braden only got into the men’s 1000m when a University of Victoria runner scratched; he went from the 10th seed and the 5th place finisher at OUA’s to being an ALL CANADIAN.  To pull off this shocker, Braden had to run a 2.5 second PB in the 1000m.  Both Braden and Matt stayed toward the front of the pack, poised and ready to break for the finish line when opportunity presented.  Braden went with about 300m to go trying to stay with Laval’s Lecours.  Matt was sitting in 5th with about 1000m to go and used his lethal kick to chase down the two York runners and almost catch Braden.


LESLIE SEXTON:  3000m @ 9:48.15, 5th, 200m track PB

Heart break struck Leslie Sexton.  She was running a great 3000m race; she had moved herself from the middle of the pack up to 3rd when someone stepped on her heel tripping her.  Leslie took a nasty tumble on the track but popped right back up and went after the pack which had separated from her.  She worked herself from 10th back to 5th but simply just ran out of track to make any more of a dent.  Without the gap opening up due to her tumble Leslie would have been right there and odds are would have been standing on the podium.  Despite falling Leslie ran a 200m track PB with a fine 9:48.15 clocking and moved from her 6th place ranking up to 5th to put the women’s team on the score board. 


MEN’S 4x800m RELAY:  7:40.53, #10 ALL TIME, 5th

As always the men’s 4x800m relay proved to be most exciting.  Dave Burr running on a gimpy ankle (he rolled it earlier in the week) was shifted to the lead-off position with one job; maintain contact.  Dave did a great job running a PB 1:57.3 to get the stick off to Braden in 7th and still within striking distance of the second place team (UVIC was in a class by themselves).  Braden ran a PB 1:53.2 to move the team up to 4th and close the gap down.  Chris ran yet another huge PB (1:54.5) to close the gap down more and give the stick to Matt in third spot.  Matt quickly surged into second but may have made his move too soon as he was unable to hold teams off over the last 200m and brought the stick home in 1:55.2 for 5th spot.  With three of the four men running PB’s, their final time 7:40.53 was 2.3 seconds faster than what they came in ranked at, and their time puts them #10 ALL TIME, knocking of a 1976 result.  Really not a whole lot more the guys could have done.  It’s frustrating being that close to a medal once again and coming up empty handed but it certainly wasn’t for lack of effort! 


SATURDAY, MARCH 8

Saturday didn’t start well as our bus driver called and indicated he was not prepared to come an get us that night; quickly scrambling we managed to get train tickets back to Kingston. Then Braden announced he was running a fever and quite ill; as were several members of the 4x400m relay and a number of others who were done competing. 


LEAH LAROCQUE:  1500m @ 4:38.06, 10th

Leah got squirted out the back of the pack and spent most of the race trying to get back into the race.  Every time she’d move up, she’d get shunted back to the rear of the pack.  While I’m sure Leah was hoping to run faster, she did run her fastest 200m track 1500m.  It was a phenomenal learning experience for this talented rookie and should help her tremendously in the future.


MEN’S 1500m:  MATT HULSE @ 3:50.34, SILVER, #4 ALL TIME, PB

                            BRADEN NOVAKOWSKI @ 3:57.89

Matt started in the middle of the pack and methodically worked himself up to 3rd by the last 600m.  Braden clearly was hurting (the fever and muscle aches took their toll) and got spit out the back of the pack.  Given his health status it would have been easy for Braden to just step off the track but he didn’t.  He hung in and eventually started picking off bodies in an effort to score some team points.  With 200m to go it was clearly a 3-man race.  Matt flew by Johannes Mallie of Victoria and started closing on Geoff Martinson of Victoria.  Matt ended up with the SILVER MEDAL and ALL CANADIAN honours with a huge PB of 3:50.34; good for #4 ALL TIME.  Mean while Braden had moved into 6th place but faded down the final stretch to finish 8th in a game effort to score a valuable team point. 


MEN’S 4x200m RELAY:  3:20.66, QUEEN’S RECORD, 7th [MIKEY PRIME (50.1, PB), ADRIAN HELLER (49.8, PB), MICHAEL NISHIYAMA (50.6, PB), RUSSELL MORRISON (49.9, PB)]

With two of the 4x400m runners sick, coach Bulak had Dave and Chris also warm-up just in case.  Being in the fastest section if the guys weren’t running at their best, it could get ugly fast.  With the first section going in 3:18.67 and second place being 3:19.15 it looked like we might be in way over our heads; one could only hope for the best, which is exactly what we got.  Mikey Prime who missed OUA’s when he sprained an ankle warming up for the 4x200m, ran an amazing lead-off leg out of lane one.  He came in on the heels of the other teams; contact was maintained which is the number one job of the lead-off runner.  Adrian tried to move ahead of the 5th place team and succeeded keeping the Gaels in the thick of it with a PB equaling leg.  Rookie Michael Nishiyama clipped 0.6 seconds off his previous best time to keep the team in 5th.  Anchor Russell Morrison gave it everything he had but could not hold off Saskatchewan.  Russell brought the stick home in a PB 49.9.  The guy’s collective effort netted a QUEEN’S RECORD 3:20.66 eclipsing the 3:21.14 1976 effort by [C. Sheppard, V. Giooding, T. Verhoeven, and M. MacAulay].  No offense guys, but a bunch of no-names [2 rookies, a sophomore and a senior] running as a TEAM just managed to eclipse the oldest record on the books by a team that consisted of a 76 Olympian in the 4x400m and a 78 Commonwealth Games competitor.  These guys now own the RECORD plus the #3 ALL TIME performance in the 4x400m; well done!


          CIS MEDALLISTS:

          Braden Novakowski SILVER 1000m @ 2:25.45; #4 ALL TIME

          Matt Hulse SILVER 1500m @ 3:50.34; #4 ALL TIME

          Matt Hulse BRONZE 1000m @ 2:25.58; #5 ALL TIME


The 14 CIS competitors posted 16 PB’s out of a possible 19, set a new QUEEN’S RECORD, posted a #2 ALL TIME (4x200m), #4 ALL TIME (1000m and 1500m), a #5 ALL TIME (1000m), and a #10 ALL TIME (4x800m) performance.  Last year the men were 16th with 12 points; this year they were 12th with 29 points, only one off the best point total 30 in school history posted at the 1987 Championship.  Last year the women were shut out; this year they scored 4 points to finish 17th.  While it may not rank as our best ever CIS Championship based on number of medals; in terms of absolute performance (everyone rising to the occasion, putting their best foot forward) no other championship meet can compare.


ALL TIME TOP TEN PERFORMANCES

MEN’S 4x200m RELAY:  3:20.66, QUEEN’S RECORD

WOMEN’S 4x200m RELAY:  1:43.90, #2 ALL TIME

BRADEN NOVAKOWSKI @ 2:25.45, #4 ALL TIME

MATT HULSE @ 3:50.34, #4 ALL TIME

MATT HULSE @ 2:25.58, #5 ALL TIME

MEN’S 4x800m RELAY:  7:40.53, #10 ALL TIME

 

PERSONAL BESTS

MEN:

  1. Chris Brens:  4x800m @ 1:54.5                 old PB 1:55.7
  2. David Burr:  4x800m @ 1:57.3                  old PB 1:57.4
  3. Adrian Heller:  4x400m @ 49.8                  equals PB
  4. Matt Hulse:  1000m @ 2:25.58                 old PB 2:26.58
  5. Matt Hulse:  1500m @ 3:50.15                 old PB 3:53.30
  6. Russell  Morrison:  4x400m @ 49.9            old PB 50.4
  7. Michael Nishiyama:  4x400m @ 50.6          old PB 51.2
  8. Braden Novakowski:  1000m @ 2:25.45      old PB 2:27.95
  9. Braden Novakowski:  4x800m @ 1:53.3      old PB 1:53.7
  10. Mikey Prime:  4x400m @ 50.1 L-O             old PB 50.4

WOMEN:

  1. Veronica Catry:  4x200m @ 24.9 L-O         old PB 25.1
  2. Angela King:  4x200m @ 26.3                   old PB 27.0
  3. Michele Krech:  4x200m @ 26.8                old PB 27.2
  4. Leah Larocque:  1500m @ 4:38.06            old PB 4:39.66 **200m track
  5. Leslie Sexton:  3000m @ 9:48.15              old PB 9:54.30 **200m track
  6. Jen Tam:  4x200m @ 25.6                       old PB 26.1

 


 


 






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