Mikayla Tinkham of Maple Ridge helped set a relay record while competing for the UBC Thunderbirds at the NAIA outdoor track and field National championship in Gulf Shores, Alabama.
The UBC team set a NAIA championship meet record in winning the four-by-800-metre relay in a time of 8:43.83.
Tinkham, a Maple Ridge secondary grad, also earned All-American status in the 800m final, finishing seventh with a time of 2:16.23.
She also ran in the 1,500m final, finishing tenth.
Overall, the UBC women’s track and field team placed second at the NAIA championships, May 24-26, while the T-Bird men finished third.
The women fell just two points shy of claiming their first national championship banner, while the men finished 11 points back of second place.
Meanwhile, two UBC coaches have been honoured by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association, one being Tinkham’s father.
Norm Tinkham, who formerly helped coach at Maple Ridge secondary and with Golden Ears Athletics, has been named the Women’s National Outdoor Assistant Coach of the Year.
Tinkham’s female endurance athletes and distance runners scored 55 of UBC’s 62 points at the NAIA outdoor championships. The T-Birds won the four-by-800m relay, finished third, fourth and seventh in the 800m final, second, third and fourth in the 1,500m, fifth in the 5,000m, and fourth and fifth in the steeplechase.
Tinkham’s athletes also nabbed five ‘A’ standards, one in the 800m, four in the 1,500m and two in the 5,000m, 10,000m and steeplechase during the regular season.
Chris Johnson of UBC is the Men’s National Outdoor Assistant Coach of the Year for the second straight season.
