Led by Fiona Benson, who finished fifth in the mile run against lofty competition with a time of 4:43.34, the Trinity Western’s men’s and women’s track and field teams put together a strong overall performance at the University of Washington Invitational Saturday at Dempsey Indoor.
Benson’s effort saw her finish just over five seconds behind the leader as she clocked a time that, once converted, will see her move into the upper echelon of the CIS 1500m rankings.
Beyond Benson it was another quality day for the Spartans as 15 of TWU’s 18 competing athletes posted season’s or personal bests and yet another school record was broken.
“We saw some really promising signs for our team in what is still the early part of our season,” said Spartans coach Laurier Primeau. “We performed well across the board and to have so many season’s and lifetime bests is another statement about where our program is heading. It’s exciting to see where we are at with still nearly a month until the Canada West Championships and almost six weeks until nationals.”
Amongst TWU’s top performers was Rebecca Merchant whose triple jump of 11.70m broke the Spartans school record and put her seventh in the CIS rankings.
High jumper Emma Nuttall also impressed as she improved on her season’s best jump of 1.77m with a clearance of 1.79m, which maintains her position atop the CIS rankings. The result tied her for first place at the meet but, officially, she dropped to second on a countback.
The Spartans had a variety of other notable achievements including Alison Jackson posting a six-second personal best in the mile race, putting up a time of 4:59.69, which was good for 10th overall, and Meg Harradine earning a three-second personal best in the 800m as she crossed the line in 2:18.60, which placed her 44th.
Sprinter Maya Daly clocked a time of 8.87 in the 60m hurdles preliminaries, which bettered her season’s best of 8.95, which she posted at the UW Indoor Preview Jan. 12. Daly went on to finish 10th in the final with a time of 8.99.
Full Spartans Results
WOMEN’S
60m Hurdles
Preliminaries
8 Daly, Maya 8.87 – 10th in CIS
16 Pearse, Anastasia 9.09
39 Zuniga, Ivonne 10.09
Final
10 Daly, Maya 8.99
60m
Preliminaries
32 Daly, Maya 7.98
1 Mile
10 Jackson, Alison 4:59.69
1 Mile Invitational
5 Benson, Fiona 4:43.34
400m
8 Pearse, Anastasia 57.36
36 Daly, Maya 1:01.01
800m
44 Harradine, Meg 2:18.60
High Jump
2 Nuttall, Emma J1.79m – 1st in CIS
Triple Jump
6 Marchant, Rebecca 11.70m – 7th in CIS
13 Akehurst, Ayla 11.14m
MEN’S
60m
Preliminaries
19 Sinclair, Jamie 7.15
1 Mile
26 Neufeld, Levi 4:19.81
30 De Schiffart, Joel 4:21.79
1 Mile Invitational
27 Johnston, Blair 4:20.77
400m
30 Ference, Lucas 51.12
800m
16 Prajea, Mihai 1:56.60
18 Voth, Chris 1:57.20
20 Goodwin, Nathan 1:57.34
Long Jump
10 Humphrey, Stephen 6.58m
14 Linde, James 6.41m
High Jump
17 Humphrey, Stephen 1.92m – 13th in CIS
The Spartans will be back in action Feb. 2 at the Harry Jerome Indoor Games at the Richmond Olympic Oval.
