It was a record-breaking day several times over for Langley-based Trinity Western University (TWU) men’s and women’s track and field teams, as the Spartans won seven medals and set four records on the second and final day of the Canada West Championships Saturday at the Saskatoon Fieldhouse.
Among TWU’s gold-medal winners Saturday were Praise Olatoke in the 60m, Mowa Adeleye in triple jump, David Boyd in pole vault, Langley’s Ethan Foster in the heptathlon and the men’s 4x200m team.
Langley’s Nick Colyn earned a silver medal in the 1500m and Giovanni Hernandez took silver in pole vault.
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TWU’s men’s team finished third overall with 101 points. The Spartans women’s team finished sixth with 50.5 points.
Coming off a silver-medal winning effort in Friday’s 300m final, Olatoke got the party started for the Spartans by winning the 60m in a Spartans record time of 6.81. Olatoke broke his own previous TWU record of 6.82, which he ran twice earlier this year.
Olatoke’s gold medal saw the Spartans capture the Canada West 60m title for the second year in a row after Kenny Blackman Jr., who finished sixth in Saturday’s final (6.92), won in 2019.
Shortly after Olatoke’s win, the first-year Foster broke TWU’s heptathlon record by winning gold with 4807 points. Foster’s victory was capped by a stirring solo run in the 1000m that saw him finish first in 2:42.97. The 841 points he garnered in the 1000m marked the most points accumulated by any individual in a single event in this year’s heptathlon. Foster’s heptathlon record broke the previous mark of 4742, which Cale Hernandez set by winning the Canada West Championship in the very same building Feb. 27, 2016.
After Foster, it was Adeleye getting in on the podium-topping performances, winning the triple jump with a season’s best mark of 12.12m. Adeleye defended her Canada West title, having also won the triple jump competition in 2019. Her mark on Saturday was just one centimeter behind her personal best.
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Chronologically on Saturday, it was the Spartans men’s 4x200m team winning next as they made TWU history, winning gold in the event for the first time ever with a time of 1:28.34. The quartet of Ben Tjernagel (New Westminster, B.C.), Romain Tourvieille de Labrouhe (Richmond, B.C.), Blackman Jr. and Olatoke ran a season’s best time to win the event, with Olatoke picking off two runners over the final 200 metres to nab his second gold medal of the day.
Then, it was Colyn putting together a record-setting run of 3:51.82 to win silver in the 1500m. Colyn broke a six-year-old TWU record which was previously held by Declan White, who ran a time of 3:51.89 (converted mile) Feb.16, 2014.
Rounding out the day in the final event of the competition was Boyd winning in pole vault, as he crushed the TWU record with a clearance of 5.15m. After Boyd became the only remaining athlete in the competition, he put the bar to 5.07m to attempt to take the Spartans record from current teammate Giovanni Hernandez (Tepic, Mexico), who had set it at 5.06m earlier this year. Boyd broke the record and then went on to push the record to 5.15m. Hernandez took the silver with a clearance of 4.70m.
On the Friday, Trinity Western third-year sprinter Grace Konrad won the 300m title at the Canada West Championships for the second year in row and set a Spartans record in the process with a winning time of 38.93.
Konrad’s performance continues a record-setting year for the star Spartan, as she has set TWU’s program record in the 200m, 300m and 400m. On Friday, Konrad broke her own TWU 300m record of 38.96, which she set at last year’s U SPORTS Championships in Winnipeg.
Konrad was one of three Spartans to earn a podium result on the first day of the Canada West Championships, as Olatoke grabbed silver in the 300m and Colyn took bronze in the 3000m.
Olatoke posted a personal best in the 300m to finish second with a time of 34.16, bettering the 34.61 he ran earlier this year in Edmonton.
In the 3000m, the fifth-year Colyn won his first-ever Canada West medal, finishing with a time of 8:22.02.
Shane Wiebe, TWU head coach said the medalists were not the only high points.
“We also had a lot of strong performances and PBs,” Wiebe remarked.
“Overall it was a very good day for us.”