Eleven members of the Waterloo Warriors Track and Field team are heading to the nationwide University Sports Championships (U Sports Championship) thanks to their impressive showings throughout the 2016 season, and most recently, at the 2017 Ontario Universities Association Track and Field Championship.
The Warriors men’s and women’s teams finished their 2016 seasons in 6th and 7th place respectively in Ontario, while capping it off with great performances at the recent OUA event held by York University.
The Ontario-wide championship, held from Feb. 24-25, saw the Warriors compete and earn medals in events such as the 60-meterdash, 4×200-meter team relay, and the 4×400-meter team dash. Although a few team members had qualified for the bigger Canada-wide championships, participants who finished with medals in the OUA championship would also automatically qualify. Tegan Sauer, Sian Smart, Mohammed Yassin, and Miguel Paulo are among the Warriors who will travel to Edmonton, Alberta to compete in the national championships.
Notable mention goes out to the men’s team, who finished the 2016/2017 season 12th in the entire country. Even more impressive is that the top 12 include universities such as the University of Toronto, University of Guelph, Laval University, and University of Alberta, who boast full-time paid programs and rosters two or three times the size of the Warriors’ team.
In addition, eleven team members achieved personal bests at the event as the season came to a close, with the Warriors’ roster performing its best in nearly 16 years of school history.
The Warriors track and field team head to the University of Alberta to represent the school in front of a nationwide audience as the U Sports Championship is set to be aired through a broadcast on Sportsnet and attended by dignitaries from university across Canada.
