UNews - athlete

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.

Horns' Millman always had U of L on his mind

trevor.kenney — Tue, 10 Sep 2013 20:56:58 +0000

Peter Millman’s track career began with him trying to run over hurdles as fast as he could. Today, Millman could just hurl them out of the way and waltz down the track – he’s clearly found his niche.

“I thought I was going to be a hurdler in Grades 6 through 8 and honestly, was really bad, and it was sort of embarrassing for my dad,” laughs Millman, whose father Paul coached track at the provincial and national level. “So I started throwing the discus in Grade 8, won provincials my second year and that’s basically where my throwing career began.”

Ready to embark on his second year of studies at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, Millman is already a known commodity on the Canadian Interuniversity Sport track and field scene. That will happen when you win gold and silver medals in your first Canada West Championship meet and are named Canada West Rookie of the Year – and that was just the beginning.

Millman, 19, spent the summer racking up personal best throws and more accolades as he claimed three medals at the Canadian Junior Track and Field Championships. The Truro, N.S. product won gold in the shot put and silver in each of the discus and hammer throw events. He was then named to Canada’s Pan American Junior Championship team and competed in Medellin, Colombia at the end of August, qualifying for the finals of the hammer throw event and improving his Pan Am ranking from 10th to seventh position.

Peter Millman prepares to throw the shotput during the Pan American Junior Athletic Championships.

“Coming here and focusing on throwing and training with Larry Steinke, I believe opens everything up for me,” says Millman, who eyes world championship and Olympic appearances in his future. “I had opportunities to go to the United States but to me, it looked like an athlete factory down there and with Larry, it’s one-on-one focussed training designed to get you to the next level.”

The U of L didn’t have to spend a lot of time recruiting Millman, he was essentially in the family from the time he took his first training trip to Lethbridge in his Grade 10 year.

“I tried to convince my parents to let me move out here in Grade 10 and just start training with Larry but that wasn’t going to happen,” he says. “I had chosen the U of L by Grade 10, it was always where I was coming.”

The draw of course is head coach Steinke, leader of the national throws program and the mentor to Olympians Jim and Heather Steacy. He’s been mining talent from Truro for years, having previously brought Kate Forbes and Jonathan Doucette (now the coach at Dalhousie ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ) to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ. Along with Millman came Kayla Gallagher (last year’s CIS gold medallist in weight throw) and Montana Forsyth. In the fall, Millman says his dad will bring another high school group to Lethbridge for a week of training, possibly laying the foundation for future throwing prospects attending the U of L.

“The thing about Larry is that his programs are so individually based and he’s so knowledgeable about track, even outside of throws events, he knows the sport so well,” says Millman. “He understands what you need in terms of lifting, really everything within your training, he sets it up. Everybody has their own program focused on what they individually need to develop.”
Millman has changed his academic focus this fall, moving away from international management and focusing on history. He admittedly struggled last year and looks to return to the strong classroom performances he put in while in high school.

“I wasn’t going to force myself to study something I didn’t really want to do,” he says of the management vein he tried to follow in the shadow of father’s career (he runs an international student recruitment program in Nova Scotia). “I want to take something where my interests lie and I’ve done that this year. I really like the courses I’m in this semester so I hope things go a lot better.”

His competitive goals are enhanced this year as he looks to build off his rookie success as well as the summer experience he gained internationally.

“Hopefully, I want to medal this year at the CIS Championships. I had such a great outdoor season with the shot, I hope it transfers to the indoor season,” he says. “After that, theoretically the NACAC Under-23 (North America Central America and Caribbean) Games are a possibility. I’m still pretty young and would have another shot at it in two years but it’d be great to make that team.”

GET THE FACTS

• Millman says he still has an autograph from former Pronghorn thrower and Olympian Jim Steacy on his bedroom wall back home in Truro from his initial visit to Lethbridge in Grade 10

• Millman competes in each of the discus, hammer/weight and shot put events but says, “I’m starting to think that maybe I have more potential in the shot put.”

• Millman has a younger sister in Grade 12 who he describes as a “genius”. She also throws hammer and is looking at attending an Ivy League school in the eastern United States

• Millman placed fifth in shot at the Pan American Junior Athletic Championships, while Horns teammate Kayla Gallagher won bronze for Canada in the hammer throw

Medoruma ready for his international debut

trevor.kenney — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 22:21:02 +0000

Matt Medoruma isn't one to have good fortune handed to him – he understands he's had to work to gain his rewards.

It was a lesson he taught himself early in his university career, and now, after five years with the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Pronghorns men's soccer team, his reward has arrived.

Medoruma, an accounting major in the Faculty of Management, will represent Canada at the 2013 Summer Universiade in Kazan, Russia July 6-17. It will be the first time the 24-year-old midfielder has ever played at a national or international level.

"Honestly, I would never have thought I'd be in this position," says Medoruma. "I'm definitely honoured to be here and excited for the experience."

Senior midfielder Matt Medoruma will be wearing Canadian colours this summer as he represents the country at the 2013 Summer Universiade.

He essentially walked on to the U of L pitch in fall 2007, having talked to head coach Randy Bardock (who will also be on the Canadian squad as an assistant coach) about continuing to play soccer beyond the youth level. A Catholic Central High School graduate, Medoruma earned a spot with the Horns but after a year of Canada West soccer, stepped away from school.

"I don't think I was ready for university," he says bluntly. "I came in and I wasn't focused with my education and my grades weren't as good as I wanted them to be. So, I decided to take some time off and refocus."

Medoruma travelled to Australia, reassessed his major (finance, at the time) and returned in fall 2009 in a better frame of mind.

"I knew that once I took that break, when I came back it was for the right reasons," he says. "I wanted to play soccer and I was excited about school again. I definitely needed that, and once I came back I was refreshed and ready to go to school."

Taking the term student-athlete seriously, Medoruma took the discipline and diligence he uses so well on the field and applied it to his ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ.

"It is a challenge to balance your academic life with the time it takes to be an athlete and that was one of the reasons I struggled in my first year," he says. "I couldn't really find that balance, so it was a struggle. It took me a while to find out I needed to put a lot of work into my education and that had to come first. Once I figured it out that I needed to put the time in, then I was fine."

He is five courses shy of completing his degree, after which he will decide if he wants to pursue an accounting designation. Of course, now that he's representing Canada on the international stage, opportunities to continue playing soccer may also present themselves.

"It might open some doors, we'll see what happens when I get out there," he says. "Before I went out for this tryout (Universiade selection camp), I figured it was the last real soccer I would try and play. I'll always keep playing but not to this kind of competitive level. Now that I've made this team, it's up in the air. If some opportunities come from this, then I'd definitely look into it."

Medoruma's strength as a midfielder is his ability to create offensive opportunities for his teammates. He distributes the ball well and fits seamlessly with other players, likely one of the reasons he impressed at camp. He credits Bardock and the Horns program for helping bring his game to this level.

"The program has been great for me, it's helped me so much in terms of my development. I wouldn't have this opportunity if not for how it has helped my game over the last five years," he says.

The Canadian team will have very little preparation time before the Universiade event. Their only training sessions will come in Russia, along with a pair of exhibition contests right before the tourney's start.

Medoruma has no worries though, he's just anticipating the first time he'll pull the Canadian jersey over his head.

"It'll be amazing, something I'd never imagine would happen," he says. "To be able to represent the country, I'll be so honoured to put that jersey on."

GET THE FACTS

• Medoruma has played for the Lethbridge Football Club in recent summers

• He had two goals and four assists for the Horns in 2012

• Lethbridge product and ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta defender Niko Saler, who Medoruma played with in youth soccer, is also on the Canadian squad

• Medoruma will document his trip on Twitter under the handle @taylorgang_89

• Kazan is known as the Sports Capital of Russia and in addition to hosting the 2013 Summer Universiade, will also host the 2015 World Aquatics Championships and the 2018 FIFA World Cup

This story first appeared in the May 2013 edition of the Legend. For a look at the full issue in a flipbook format, follow this link.

Medoruma ready for his international debut

trevor.kenney — Thu, 16 May 2013 17:12:15 +0000