TRACK & FIELD: Mustangs send Longtime Coach Croley into Retirement with a Double Golden Handshake

March 08, 2025

WINDSOR, Ont. – The Western Mustangs swept the men’s and women’s team championships for the first time in program history at the 2025 BioSteel U SPORTS Track & Field Championships in Windsor, Saturday. The double gold performance sent Mustangs head coach Vickie Croley into retirement in the best possible way. Croley, who won both the male and female coach of the year awards, announced her retirement prior to the season, after 32 years coaching the Mustangs women’s team, and 26 in charge of the men’s squad.

The Mustangs men finished 139 points, well ahead of the defending champions from Guelph, who scored 85. The Manitoba Bisons finished in third place overall, with 79 points. On the women’s side, Western racked up 119 points, beating the defending champions Guelph, who had 85, with Saskatchewan coming in third with 74 points.

For Croley, it marks her second national championship for both teams, as she led the Western men to a national banner in 2012 and the women in 2002.

On Saturday, Western’s men were paced by strong performances in the field events. In the triple jump, Kenneth West’s first jump of 16.04 metres held up as the pick of the crop, while teammate Banujan Kulainthiran took bronze with 15.02 metres. In the pole vault, while the gold medal went to Brock’s Michael Ivanov, who cleared 5.12 metres, the Mustangs finished second and fourth to pick up 13 valuable points. On the track, Western won the 4×200 metre relay in a time of 1:26.9.

The Mustang women were led by Favour Okpali, who won the 600 metres in a time of 1:27.71 and helped Western to bronze in the 4×400 relay, as they maintained the lead they built up through Day 2 of the competition.

Athlete of the Meet honours went to Calgary’s Sienna MacDonald and Guelph’s Max Davies. MacDonald set two records on Friday in the long jump and the 60-metre hurdles and accounted for 23 of the Dinos’ 48 points. For his part, Davies followed up Friday’s record-breaking 1,000-metre run with gold in the 1500, posting a time of 3:45.77. Combined with his efforts leading Guelph to 4×800 gold last night, Davies goes home with three individual gold.

Manitoba’s Madisson Lawrence picked up a silver and a bronze medal on Saturday, to complete the set she started with Friday’s pentathlon gold. She was third in the triple jump with a leap of 12.25 metres and tied with teammate Lara Denbow in the high jump by clearing 1.75 metres. Denbow took gold based on having fewer missed attempts. Lawrence’s 24 individual points were the highest of the meet.

The Guelph women, who had their run of six consecutive titles snapped, reached the top of the podium twice on Saturday, wins in the 4×200 and 4×400 relays.

Julia Agostinelli of Toronto the other woman to strike gold, running the 1,500 in 4:23.60. On the men’s side, individual gold medals also went to Dawson Mann of Manitoba, who ran the 600 in 1:17.55 and the Alberta 4×400 relay team.

The host Windsor Lancers took gold in the men’s shot put, thanks to a 17.70-metre throw by A.J. Stanat, and finished 1-2 in the women’s triple jump with Mandy Brunet going 12.46 metres and Mikayla May landing just behind at 17.29. They finished in fourth place in both standings, scoring 59 points in men’s events, and 58 points in women’s.

All individual gold medallists, including those on relay teams, become first-team All-Canadians, while silver medallists earn second-team status. 

MAJOR AWARDS

WOMEN

• Team Champion: Western
• Sue Wise Award (coach of the year): Vickie Croley, Western
• Athlete of the Meet: Sienna MacDonald, Calgary

 MEN

• Team Champion:  Western
• Bob Boucher Award (coach of the year): Vickie Croley, Western
• George Gemer Award (athlete of the meet):  Sienna MacDonald, Calgary 

TEAM STANDINGS

MEN (17 of 17 events)

WOMEN (17 of 17 events)

INDIVIDUAL MEDALLISTS: