WINNIPEG – Sienna MacDonald, Alexis Johnson and Aly Edwards all earned U SPORTS medals on the first day of the national track & field championships, hosted by the University of Manitoba inside the Jim Daly Fieldhouse Thursday.

In all, the Dinos women finished Day 1 in the lead with 29 points through three scored events.

MacDonald was crowned the national champion in the pentathlon after an exclamation point of a final performance in the combined event on the year. Clearly one of the best athletes U SPORTS all season long, MacDonald once again was dominant, winning four of the five individual disciplines for a final score of 4164 points. MacDonald opened the meet with a time of 8.16 in the 60m hurdles – a mere one-hundredth of a second shy of the U SPORTS record of 8.15.

Edwards finished the day with a bronze medal in the pentathlon after racking up 3793 points – just one shy of second place in a tight race all afternoon. This marks her second national bronze medal, after duplicating the effort back with 3722 points back in 2020.

With their gold-bronze finish, the Dinos have now won two medals in the pentathlon three times in the last 11 years, last doing so back-to-back when Rachel Machin and Rachael McIntosh went 1-2 in both 2013 and 2014.

Johnson kicked off the national championship with her first U SPORTS medal. The reigning Canada West Women's Field Athlete of the Year had a personal best mark of 16.94m on her opening throw, good enough for silver in her first day of competition.

Dawn Richardson Wilson narrowly missed out on yet another medal for the Dinos on the short by highly successful opening day. The second year finished fourth overall in the women's 60m with a time of 7.42 in finals to bring home more valuable points for the Scarlet & Gold.

On the men's side, rookie Junior Imoukhuede just missed a spot in finals, overcoming a slow start and making up loads of ground for a time of 6.91 seconds for ninth – one spot shy of qualifying for finals as a first year.

Through four events of the men's heptathlon, Jaxon Turner sits in fourth place with 2704 points. The two-sport athlete had the top long jump mark of 6.79m and was third in the opening 60m with a time of 7.23 seconds to help build a strong opening-day score.

In preliminary action, Tatum Wade breezed to an automatic berth in Saturday's women's 600m final, while both the men's and women's 4x200m relays also qualified for the final.
 
Day 2 gets underway at noon MT, starting with the men's weight throw.

WOMEN'S STANDINGS
1) CALGARY – 29
2) WESTERN -- 19
3) LAVAL – 13
4) GUELPH – 12
5) TORONTO – 10
6) DALHOUSIE – 8
7) MCGILL – 6
8) WINDSOR, REGINA – 4
9) ALBERTA, TRINITY WESTERN, YORK, SASK – 3
 
MEN'S STANDINGS
1) MANITOBA – 18
2) TRINITY – 6
3) LAVAL – 5
4) MONTREAL – 4
5) ALBERTA – 3
6) WESTERN – 2
7) GUELPH – 1
 
DAY ONE MEDALLISTS
 
PENTATHLON
1) Sienna MacDonald, Calgary – 4164
2) Rebecca Parker, Guelph – 3794
3) Aly Edwards, Calgary – 3793 
 
WOMEN'S WEIGHT THROW
1) Phoebe Price-Roberts, Toronto – 17.98M
2) Alexis Johnson, Calgary – 16.94M
3) Liv Sands, Western – 16.72M
  
WOMEN'S 60M
1) Audrey Leduc, Laval – 7.26S
2) Vivian Ogor, Western – 7.33
3) Donna Ntambue, McGill – 7.37
 
MEN'S 60M
1) Jordan Soufi, Manitoba – 6.69S
2) Tyrell Davis, Manitoba – 6.73
3) Kenny Blackman Jr., Trinity Western – 6.76

-UC-