Horns at championships meets

trevor.kenney — Fri, 21 Feb 2014 18:40:47 +0000

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Letbridge Pronghorn athletes are busy on a number of fronts this weekend, including the swim and track and field teams that are competing at championship events.

Canada West Track Championships

The Pronghorns track and field team sends 21 competitors to the conference meet in Edmonton this year with some definite medal hopefuls.

Picking up where she left off from her freshman season, Kayla Gallagher enters the conference meet ranked second in the weight throw. If her first year was any indication though, her best is yet to come. Last year, Gallagher peaked at the right time by winning both the Canada West and CIS weight throw titles.

Joining Gallagher in the throws events will be second-year thrower Montana Forsyth and newcomer Lara Roth. Roth will also throw in the shot put event.

On the men’s side, reigning Canada West weight throw champion Peter Millman also had a good start to his second season and enters the conference meet as the top ranked weight thrower. Millman is a medal threat in the shot put as well, ranked second in Canada West. Fellow thrower Ryan Sommer has taken a big step forward this season and is a medal contender in the shot put.

Third-year hurdler and pentathlon competitor Phillip Rockerbie had some positive early season results, ranked second in the conference in the 60-metre hurdles and has an outside shot at the podium in the pentathlon. Freshman jumper Aaron Hernandez burst on to the collegiate scene this season, winning both the long jump and triple jump events at the Golden Bear open. He will enter the Canada West Championships ranked first in the triple jump and third in the long jump.

CIS Swim Championships

For the second year in a row the Pronghorns swim team heads to the CIS Championship meet with 11 athletes, but this season the Horns have a balance between the two genders.

Last year in Calgary, the Horns sent 10 men and only one female swimmer, where this year the Horns will have four women swimming, and for the first time in more than a decade, will enter relay teams of both genders in the same CIS Championship.

Fifth-year sprinter Ryan Thornley will lead the men’s side that includes Duncan Donaldson, Nick van der Sloot, Scott Hunter, Tiha Konyves, David Errington and Kurt Carolus. Thornley was the Horns lone individual medalist from the Canada West Championships, winning a bronze in the 50-metre butterfly.

In addition to the individual events, the men’s relay could threaten the podium. Entering the championships, the men’s 400-metre free relay is ranked fourth in the country.

On the women’s side, after being the lone Pronghorn to qualify for the CIS Championships last season, Kara Declark will be joined by Keri Ann Cowan, Ardelle Layden and Lauren Smythies. The increased female qualifiers have allowed the Horns to enter the relays this year and should reflect an increase in the team scoring standings.

“For the first time in over a decade the program will see both the men’s and women’s team enter relays in the same CIS Championship,” says head coach Peter Schori. “We have a very strong sprint team with some fifth-year leadership and three first-year qualifiers.

“If all the guys are firing together our men could challenge for a top 10 in the team scoring.”

The 2014 CIS Swim Championships are hosted at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Toronto and the three-day national meet, which kicks off the CIS winter championship season, runs from Thursday to Saturday at the U of T’s Varsity Pool, with preliminaries starting at 10 a.m. and finals at 6 p.m. daily.

All finals will be webcast live on www.CIS-SIC.tv, while live results from all sessions will be available on the championship website: http://english.cis-sic.ca/championships/swim/index.

UNews - http://english.cis-sic.ca/championships/swim/index

Horns at championships meets

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