2017 U SPORTS Track & Field Championships: Land, Stafford lead Guelph and Toronto to respective team titles
U SPORTS – EDMONTON (U SPORTS) — As some of his runners lay in exhaustion just off the track, Guelph head coach Dave Scott-Thomas took stock in the Gryphons’ dominant men’s team championship at the 2017 U SPORTS Track and Field Championships, held at the University of Alberta’s Universiade Pavilion.
OFFICIAL WEBSITE (complete results): http://en.usports.ca/championships/trackfield/index
“They battled hard, man. You look at them and they’re wrecked,” he said surveying his spent fourth-place 4x400m men’s relay team. “It’s been three days of pushing their bodies to the limits. That’s what you want to see. I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
Guelph opened up an insurmountable lead on Friday and just cruised to the finish on the final day, finishing with 141 points. Windsor (68) and Laval (65.50) rounded out the team podium.
It’s the Gryphons’ sixth national title since 2008 and in that time they’ve only been out of the top three twice for both men and women.
“We were taking a run at the all-time scoring record and just came up short off the back end,” said Scott-Thomas, who was named Men’s U SPORTS Coach of the Year. “It just shows you how good that Windsor team was in 2011 that did that. Superb effort. I couldn’t be happier – (for the) women and the men.”
Guelph was led on Saturday by Thomas Land, who out-sprinted Victoria’s Tyler Smith to the line in a personal best time of 1:17.93 to win the men’s 600 metres.
“It was actually nice because I haven’t (set a personal best) since my first year of university,” said the fourth-year Mechanical Engineering student-athlete who won bronze a year ago.
Land, who also won a silver in the men’s 1000m, was named Male Athlete of the Meet.
Guelph’s women came into the final day just behind Toronto in the team standings, but the Varsity Blues stepped on the gas pedal and rolled to their thirdstraight championship with 119.50 points. Guelph was second with 82.83 and Western third (65).
“As you know, it isn’t just one who wins a team championship,” said Toronto head coach Carl Georgevski, who was named U SPORTS Women’s Coach of the Year. “Across the board, we scored in every area. It was just wonderful. I am so happy for our student-athletes and our coaching staff, who worked so hard to make this thing happen.”
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