UNews - the Canada West Championships

Throwers earn Pronghorn weekly honours

trevor.kenney — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 23:23:13 +0000

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Pronghorns throwers Peter Millman and Kayla Gallagher earned their respective Subway Pronghorn Male and Female Athlete of the Week honours after impressive performances at the Canada West Track and Field Championships this past weekend.

Second-year thrower Millman continued his stellar start to his university throwing career, winning the gold medal in both the weight throw and shot put events at the Canada West championships hosted by the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta.

In his first event of the meet, the Truro, NS native set a new personal best in the weight throw, en route to his second career gold medal in the event. His throw of 18.82 metres won the event by over a metre. The next day in the shot put event, he set another personal best mark, hitting 16.91 metres on his sixth and final throw. It was the second time this season that he had set a personal best mark in that event.

With his outstanding performance at the Canada West Championships, Millman was named the Canada West Field Athlete of the Year.

Meanwhile, reigning CIS weight throw champion Kayla Gallagher was again the cream of the crop in her marquee event, claiming her second consecutive Canada West title. Setting a new personal best with a throw of 18.48 metres, Gallagher also beat the field by nearly a metre.

Despite not training shot put for much of the season, Gallagher was then three centimetres short of a new personal best and missed the shot put podium by only nine centimetres and finished fourth with a throw of 13.17 metres.

Gallagher, Millman, Ryan Sommer and Aaron Hernandez will travel return to Edmonton for the CIS Championships, Mar. 6-8.

Pronghorns women's rugby team kicks off season

trevor.kenney — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 17:49:55 +0000

For the first time since 2007, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Pronghorns women’s rugby team enters the Canada West season as the hunter and not the hunted after seeing their reign of six consecutive conference championships snapped in 2012.

The ‘Horns will not have a home game until the Canada West Championships and will play all four of their conference games on the road, starting this weekend with a trip to the west coast to face the Victoria Vikes and UBC Thunderbirds.

In addition to losing their conference crown, the ‘Horns also had their 22-game conference winning streak snapped in the process, losing to the Calgary Dinos 31-18 during the regular season. It was the Dinos who also put an end to the ‘Horns' reign as conference champions, beating the U of L 33-32 in a thrilling Canada West semifinal.

Heading into the 2013 season, the ‘Horns will need to fill some key holes left by the departure of five-time Canada West all-star Brandi Van Eeuwen, fly half Laura Murphy-Burke, scrum half Alex Hendricks and heart and soul leader Kendra Reeves. Despite these departures, the cupboard is far from bare with the return of 2013 Canada U20 members Sarah Gordon and Ashley Delaney. Add in team captain Jillian Ankutowicz, Kim Leavitt, Tiffany Wideen and Lindsey Duxbury, and the leadership group will be solid.

Newcomers Allison Toews and Lisa Hildebrand have also impressed early for the ‘Horns.

The ‘Horns' first opponent, the Victoria Vikes, will look to rebound from last season’s winless campaign and welcome a fresh, elite group of recruits to the fold. The Vikes boast 15 new members, 11 of whom competed provincially this past summer.

The UBC Thunderbirds enter the 2013 Canada West women’s rugby season with a new coach in Maria Gallo, who is working to replicate the success she enjoyed as a player at both Guelph ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ and ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta. The former national team member won three CIS championships and was named the CIS Most Valuable Player in 2002.

Gallo takes over a relatively young squad that returns most of its players from last season, which ended with a loss in the Canada West bronze medal game. There are no fifth-year seniors on the roster, but there is a large group of third- and fourth-year players who will provide leadership.

The Canada West Championships will be hosted by the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, Oct. 18-20 at the
U of L Community Sports Stadium.

Off-season success for Horns throwers

trevor.kenney — Mon, 15 Jul 2013 16:47:46 +0000

Coming off a successful first season with the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Pronghorns track team, Peter Millman and Kayla Gallagher both earned medals this past weekend at the Canadian Junior Track and Field Nationals in Sainte-Therese, Que.

Millman, from Truro, N.S., won three medals on the weekend, including a gold in the shot put with a throw of 18.31 metres. He also earned silver medals in the discus and hammer events with throws of 52.03 and 63.29 metres respectively.

Millman won the Canada West Championships in weight throw this past spring and placed sixth at the CIS Championship. He was also the silver medalist at the Canada West Championships in the shot put.

Gallagher, who won the CIS Championship in the weight throw as a freshman this past spring, earned a Canadian Junior Track bronze medal in the hammer throw with a toss of 51.66 metres.

Both Millman and Gallagher earned spots on the Canadian team for the Pan American Junior Championships to be held in Medellin, Colombia, Aug. 23-25.

Horns swim team grabs top recruit

trevor.kenney — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 21:13:17 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Pronghorns men's swimming team has signed one of the top young international swimmers in the country.

Pronghorns swim coach Peter Schori announced the signing of top prospect Kurt Carolus on Thursday, a South African national who has been living in Saskatoon. Recruited out of the Saskatoon Goldfins program, Carolus is the third ranked graduating high school swimmer in Canada in the 200-metre butterfly.

"Kurt is a gold star recruit to our program, he is already swimming at a CIS top-10 level and wants to do the work to be better," says Schori. "We have a great incoming class and having Kurt choose the U of L to study and swim gets everyone excited about what we can accomplish next year."

Carolus won the 200-metre fly event at the 2012 Western Canada Championships and finished fourth at the 2012 African Swimming Championships. Last summer, Carolus swam in both the Canadian and South African Olympic trails where he made it to the semifinals in the 200-metre fly at the South African trials.

Prior to joining the 'Horns in the fall, Carolus will represent Team Saskatchewan at the 2013 Canada Summer Games in Sherbrooke, Que.

During his first season at the helm of the Pronghorns swim team, Schori achieved notable improvements with the program. The Horns qualified nearly twice as many athletes for the Canada West Championships and sent 11 athletes to swim in the CIS Championships in Calgary.

Track stars earn weekly honours

trevor.kenney — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 21:45:51 +0000

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Pronghorn track and field athletes Peter Millman and Kayla Gallagher have earned recognition as Subway Pronghorn athletes of the Week after impressive performances at the Canada West Track and Field Championships.

Millman, a first-year thrower, continued his impressive season by earning two medals at the conference championships this past weekend in Regina. With that, he's punched his ticket to the CIS Championship in two weeks in Edmonton.

The Truro, Nova Scotia product remained undefeated in the weight throw versus CIS competition and earned his first conference title with a throw of 16.88 metres. That throw was also the third longest toss by any freshman in CIS history.

Millman then narrowly missed earning his second Canada West gold medal, finishing second in the shot put by only 21 centimetres.

Truro, Nova Scotia native Gallagher continues to make a mark in her first season with the Pronghorn track team, medaling twice at the Canada West Championships.

In the weight throw event, Gallagher's 16.85 metre toss was the longest in CIS history by a rookie and in turn earned her first conference title. She followed up that performance with a silver medal in the shot put with a distance of 12.94 metres.

Gallagher was an honorable mention for the Canada West rookie of the year and field event athlete of the year awards and will compete in both events at the CIS Championships in Edmonton, Mar. 8-10.

Nicol, Thornley lead Horns' effort in pool

trevor.kenney — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 18:45:06 +0000

This past weekend in Victoria, 27 Pronghorn swimmers hit the pool at the Canada West Championships, led by medalists Jeff Nicol and Ryan Thornley. It was the largest group of swimmers the 'Horns have sent in recent memory and they continued to build on this season's positive results.

Both the men's and women's sides finished fifth in their respective team categories with the men's side accumulating 293.5 points, while the women's side finished with 216. The 'Horns had 13 top-eight finishes at the meet and 20 of 27 swimmers recorded individual scoring points.

There were also two school records broken in Victoria with Thornley breaking the school record in the 100 metre backstroke and the men's 400 freestyle relay team also setting a new school mark.

"Canada West is the fastest conference meet in the CIS and it lived up to its billing," says first-year head coach Peter Schori. "Overall, I am pleased with our team's improvement but not satisfied with all of our results, I think we are better in some areas than we showed and expect to see improvements at the CIS Championships."

Thornley and fifth-year swimmer, Nicol led the way for the Pronghorns and were the only medalists this year. Nicol has medaled at the last four conference championship meets and finished with two medals in Victoria, while Thornley picked up a bronze in the 50-metre fly on Friday.

In the 200-metre breast stroke, Nicol earned silver in the event for the second consecutive year, and is currently ranked third in the CIS. He also swam a lifetime best time in the 100-metre breast stroke en route to a bronze medal.

The men's 400-metre freestyle relay team narrowly missed the podium, finishing fourth. It is currently ranked fifth in the CIS.

"We needed 3/10ths more in the Men's 400 Free Relay to get on the podium ahead of Alberta. The boys raced well but I think there are lots of places over 400 metres to find the improvement we need," says Schori.

On the women's side, Kara Declark had two top-8 finishes in the 50 and 100-metre fly events and Kiara Bodell also finished in the top eight in the 100 backstroke. A bright sign for the women looking toward the future is that 10 of the 14 women that competed at the championships registered points for the team.

"I am pleased to see the progress from our Women's team. They are a very young team and have raised their level of competitiveness in Canada West moving up to 5th place with 10 swimmers scoring points," says Schori.

The 'Horns had one more swimmer qualify for the CIS Championships and have qualified nine to date. The team will have another chance this weekend to post CIS qualifying times as the Lethbridge Swim Club plays host to the Speedo Alberta Senior Swimming Championships at the Max Bell Pool.

The CIS Championship meet will be hosted by the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary Dinos, Feb. 21-23.

Swim team continues to impress

trevor.kenney — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 18:07:09 +0000

With the Canada West Championship meet still over a month away, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Pronghorn swim team continues to enjoy an impressive start to the season under first-year head coach Peter Schori.

After posting its first CIS Top 10 appearance in more than 10 years, the 'Horns have already nearly doubled their Canada West qualifying swimmers and will send their biggest team to the conference championships in more than seven seasons.

This past weekend at the JP Fiset Invitational meet in Edmonton, the 'Horns achieved one more Canada West qualifying time, pushing the team's total to 26. Last season, the 'Horns only sent 15 swimmers to the conference meet and with still more than a month to go, the 'Horns have qualified nearly that number in each gender. To date, the 'Horns have 13 men and 13 women who have achieved the Canada West qualifying standard.

A total of 25 of 29 Horns raced to lifetime bests last weekend and three more swimmers qualifyied for the CIS Championships.

Freshman Kara Declark secured her first CIS time in the 50 fly and is the first of the Pronghorn women to qualify for the CIS championship meet this year. Mat Loyola (200 breast) and Tiha Konyves (50/100 free) added their names to the men's CIS roster. Freshman Brooke Whitaker made her first Canada West standard in the 100 free. The Horns now have 26 swimmers qualified for the Canada West conference championship and eight swimmers qualified for the CIS national championship.

The Horns also broke five more school records to bring the total to nine for the season. The men set new Pronghorn records in the 200 free relay for the second time this year and continued to show national level class in the medley relay with their third new record of the season in the 200. Ryan Thornley broke his own 'Horns records in the 50 Back and 50 fly, becoming the first in school history to break 26 seconds in the 50 back with a time of 25.78 seconds. Jeffrey Nicol broke through in the 200 breast, bettering his own record by more than a second in 2:14.93.

The Canada West Championships will be hosted by the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Victoria, Jan. 25 -27, 2013.

Horns swimming in top-10

trevor.kenney — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 23:27:05 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Pronghorns men's swim team has cracked the 2012 CIS Top-10 swim rankings for the first time in more than 10 years.

Fresh off an excellent performance at the Dino ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Invitational in Calgary last weekend, the 'Horns have jumped into the seventh spot nationally. The Dino meet continued a run of positive early season results.

Highlighting the weekend for the men's side was a third place finish in the 200-metre medlay relay. The 'Horns were just behind CIS powers UBC Thunderbirds and ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary Dinos. The team of Nick Vander Sloot, Jeff Nicol, Ryan Thornley and Tiha Konyves set a new school record by more than two seconds and beat the defending CIS bronze medalist ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta Golden Bears.

The 'Horns also finished fourth in the 200-metre free relay, breaking the school's best time by more than a second. The team of Vander Sloot, Thornley, Konyves and Hunter Scott finished with a time of 1:34.52.

"It was a good start to the season for us against some of the top teams in the CIS," says first-year Pronghorn head coach Peter Schori. "Canada West is the toughest swimming conference in the country and we are closing the gap between us and the top schools."

To date, the 'Horns have 18 qualifiers (10 men and 8 women) for the Canada West Championships that will be hosted by the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Victoria, Jan. 25-27, 2013. Five Pronghorn men have also already qualified for the CIS Championships in February.

Following are the current CIS rankings.

MEN'S SWIMMING
(points) / (previous rankings)

1. Toronto 610 points / (1)
2. Calgary 603 / (2)
3. UBC 263 / (NR)
4. Laval 260 / (3)
5. Alberta 218 / (8)
6. Montreal 170 / (4)
7. Lethbridge 160 / (NR)
8. McGill 148 / (5)
9. Ottawa 113 / (7)
10. McMaster 105 / (9)

WOMEN'S SWIMMING
(points) / (previous rankings)

1. Calgary 399 points / (3)
2. Montreal 368 / (1)
3. Toronto 365 / (4)
4. UBC 354 / (NR)
5. McGill 249 / (2)
6. Alberta 157 / (9)
7. UQTR 149 / (6)
8. McMaster 126 / (5)
9. Guelph 104 / (7)
10. Dalhousie 103 / (NR)

Horn swimmers vye for Olympic spots

trevor.kenney — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 19:46:07 +0000

Eight current members of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Pronghorns swim team will travel to Montreal with Olympic dreams on the line. The Olympic trials will run from Mar. 27 to Apr. 1 at the Historic Montreal Olympic Pool. Rogers Sportsnet will be covering the action live nightly (5 to 6 p.m. MST).

Ryan Thornley, Jeffery Nicol, Mat Lyola, Matthew Mastromatteo, Tiha Konyves, David Errington, Zack McAllister and Jessica Kelly will represent the 'Horns at the trials, while former Pronghorn Kristy Gabruck will also compete.

Nicol led the way for the 'Horns at the Canada West Championships this season, winning three medals at the conference meet, while Thornley was the top Pronghorn at the CIS Championship meet in late February. Thornley finished sixth in the 50-metre fly and set a new school record in the process.

The lone female Pronghorn to compete in the CIS Championship, Jessica Kelly placed in three events and earned 17.5 points. Kelly won the 'B' final in the 100-metre fly.

Thornley, Nicol, and Kelly will be looking to crack the top 8 by making it to the 'A' final.

McAllister is in his first year at the U of L and has had a great season, having competed at the Pan American Games in Mexico this past fall. He will be competing for a spot on the Paralympic Team. Unfortunately for McAllister, he is still waiting on a classification appeal, and might not know if he has qualified until after the ruling has been made.

Steacy and Murray named athletes of the week

trevor.kenney — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 21:17:55 +0000

Track and field medalists Heather Steacy and Kyle Murray were named Pronghorns Female and Male Atletes of the Week respectively Wednesday after their efforts at the Canada West Track and Field Championships.

Steacy, a fourth-year thrower, continued her strong 2011 indoor season as she reclaimed her Canada West weight throw title. Two weeks removed from becoming the first CIS woman to break the 20-metre barrier, Steacy won her fourth Canada West gold medal in the weight throw after taking last season off from indoor competition.

The only other medal winner for the Pronghorns at the Canada West Championships was Murray. He had another strong showing after winning gold at the Bison Open two weeks previous, this time claiming a silver medal in the 300 metres.

Both Steacy and Murray head to Sherbrooke, Que. next week to compete in the CIS Championships.

UNews - the Canada West Championships

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