Success at CIS for the Warriors
By: Jason Dockendorff

Eight of the Warriors finest travelled to Windsor last week to compete in the CIS Track and Field Championships.

The national championship showcases the best in the country with only the top twelve athletes or relay teams advancing to this competition. The Warriors qualified Jason Goetz in the triple jump, Ryan Wight in the high jump, and the men’s 4x200m and 4x400m relays. Accompanying the team was Nancy Spreitzer who was the recipient of the OUA Female Student-Athlete Community Service Award and was nominated for the national level award. The CIS Major Awards ceremony was held on March 12 where national awards were given the rookies of the year, track athletes of the year, field athletes of the year, and Student-Athlete Community Service recipients. The Warriors got off to a good start as Nancy won the CIS Student-Athlete Community Service Award. This award is given to the person who best represents the balance between athletics, academics and community service.

The events started on Friday for the Warriors with the men’s 4x200m. The team of Luke Govia, Chris Lam, Eric Noland, and Abdul Rahman Ghannoum ran a clean race with decent splits from everyone. The team entered the competition ranked 12th and ended up finishing in the same position. This was a good showing for the team considering one of the team members, Jacob Muirhead, suffered an injury two weeks prior and it was decided not to run him in this race to reserve him for the 4x400m.

Ryan Wight was next up in the high jump. Ryan was ranked 12th in the competition and started off strong clearing the first three heights on the first attempt. Ryan was sitting in excellent position in the competition as all the other competitors were consistently knocking the bar down. The bar was next raised to 1.98m which is 3cm above Ryan’s personal best. Ryan’s attempts were strong, barely grazing the bar on all attempts, but the bar was not his friend on this day as it would not stay up. Ryan finished the competition in 10th place ending his Warrior career in fine fashion.

The nation’s second ranked triple jumper Jason Goetz was next on the schedule. Jason’s continuous improvement throughout the entire season was sure to provide some excitement at the national championships. After 3 rounds Jason was sitting third with only a few centimetres separating the top five athletes. In the fourth round, Jason fouled but it was a massive jump and he knew it. He was focused and knew the title was within his reach in this the final field event of the national championships. Jason delivered on his fifth jump, leaping to a mark of 14.70m setting a new varsity record and moving him into first. At this time Jason was third last in the jumping order, with the number one ranked Derek Watkins jumping last. Despite Derek already competing in the pentathlon, high jump, and long jump previously, he found the energy to jump 3cm further than Jason in the fifth round. In the final round no one was able to catch Jason and Derek. Jason stepped on to the runway for his final attempt, you could see the intensity and confidence in his face. He was fuelled and driven to end the season with another record and hopefully a gold medal. The jump was clean and it was big, Jason hopped around pumping his fists as the crowd cheered and waited for the measurement. 14.80m!!! Another varsity record and now first in the competition with only two jumpers remaining. Jason had bronze at worst. Next up was Tumelo Moleko from Western but he was not able to deliver on his final jump. Derek Watkins was now the only man standing between Jason and the gold medal. In his final attempt Derek leaped an amazing 15.09m winning the gold with an exclamation point. Jason had the silver medal, CIS All-Canadian status, and is UW TF’s first male CIS field event medal since Jeff Miller won the pole vault in 1996.

Feeding off the excitement and success of the triple jump, the men’s 4x400m was next on the track. Members Jacob Muirhead, Chris Lam, Luke Govia, and Ben Clare were ranked 12th in the competition but were ready to prove otherwise, and that is exactly what they did. Running strong smart races with good exchanges, the warriors team finished 9th in the field, just out of the points.

Overall the team placed very well finishing 14th out of 21 teams. This is a drastic improvement over previous years finishing 19th in 2008 (1 point) and 17th in 2007 (2 points).