CALGARY – The outdoor track and field season is in full swing, with provincial championships set to get underway this weekend, and the University of Calgary Dinos track and field team has been actively competing and recruiting.
After walking away with all kinds of hardware in the 2007-08 varsity season, reigning UC athlete of the year Sam Effah has continued to tear up the track in the outdoor season. The 19-year-old opened his summer at the national relay training camp in Baton Rouge, La., along with several athletes headed to Beijing in August.
His 100-metre time has consistently improved, culminating with an official 10.32-second performance and a wind-aided 10.18 – both personal bests. He achieved the Olympic 'B' standard in the 200 metres at 20.68 and will head to Ottawa next weekend for another national team relay camp.
Before heading to Ottawa, Effah will join teammate Amonn Nelson at this weekend's senior provincial championships at Foothills Athletic Park in Calgary. Nelson, the reigning Canada West track athlete of the year and CIS gold medalist in the 300, achieved a personal best in the 200 with a time of 23.47.
Nelson, also 19, is aiming to make the national team that will compete at the NACAC (North America, Central America, and Caribbean) U-23 Championships in Toluca, Mexico July 18-20.
Both Nelson and Effah will compete at the Canadian Track and Field Championships in Windsor, Ont. the first weekend in July, where Effah will have his final shot to make the Olympic team. He is a longshot for Beijing, however, with a trip to the NACAC event in Mexico a more likely scenario for the 2008 CIS track athlete of the year and championship MVP.
While their current stars continue to lower their times on the track, Dinos head coach Doug Lamont and his staff have been hard at work selecting the stars of tomorrow to strengthen one of Canada's top collegiate programs.
Leading the all-star group of recruits is Danielle Kendall out of Cochrane High School. A two-time member of the Alberta juvenile team and one of Canada's top under-19 prospects, Kendall won double gold in the 400- and 800-metre events at the high school provincial championships in May, adding silver in the 200. Kendall's presence will further fortify the Dinos' solid group of middle distance runners, led by three-time defending CIS 600-metre champion Holly Ratzlaff.
The Dinos women, who will look for their fifth consecutive Canada West title next season, also gained depth in the field events with the addition of Queen Elizabeth's Keightly Bertram, the provincial champion in the pole vault, along with Bonnyville native Jaynelle Gillett, who won provincial silver in both long jump and triple jump.
Sprinter Richina Foggo, middle/distance runners Lindsay Gould and Debbie Querengesser, hurdler Marissa Roberts, and triple jumper Danielle Parrish round out the women's recruits.
On the men's side, the CIS silver medalists will welcome hurdler Zachary Little (Cochrane High School), sprinter Bastion Mayer, and triple jumper Adam Clark.
-UC-
