The Trinity Western Spartans did well both on the track and in the field.
Competing at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport national championships, the Spartans’ Emma Nuttall captured the gold medal in the high jump while Fiona Benson won bronze in the 1500m event.
The championships wrapped up on March 10 at the Max Bell Fieldhouse on the University of Manitoba campus.
Nuttall, a first-year student, cleared a season-best and Spartans record 1.82m to win gold. The medal is also a step up from two weeks prior when she won silver at the Canada West championships.
Nuttall was also given an honourable mention for the female athlete of the meet award.
“I was a little shaky coming in after getting silver at Canada West, so to get gold here, I ‘m just so pleased.
“It’s the first time I felt spring in my jump this year and everything fell into place.”
Benson, who came into the championships ranked fourth in her event, and moved up one spot to third thanks to a personal and Spartans best time of 4:29.35. She missed silver by a mere 0.11.
“I thought it was a pretty solid race,” Benson said.
“I’m still getting used to the whole racing dynamic and running with that many gilrs.
“There’s a learning curve but I’m pretty happy with how it went.”
At the Canada West championships, Benson won gold in the event and silver in the 1000m race.
The gold and bronze medals capped off an impressive competition for the Spartans at the national championships as on Friday first-year Calum Innes posted a personal best and Spartans record 8.19 in finishing fourth in the 60m hurdles and first-year Hazel Ross improved on a 12th place pre-competition ranking to finish ninth in the 60m hurdles with a time of 8.94 while on Thursday first-year Jake Powrie finished fifth – although he was tied for fourth but dropped on a tiebreaker – in the pentathlon with a personal best and Spartans record 3,650 points.
“It was a highly unusual event in that all of our athletes exceeded expectations,” said Spartans coach Laurier Primeau. “I feel blessed to be working with these kids because I feel they make me look a lot better than I am. It was a really good meet for us.
“One of the ways we judge our performances is, ‘Can you elicit the best performance of the season at the most important competition of the season?’ and all five of our athletes did that.”
