Running towards glory?

By Ryan Laverty

The Dinos track & field team took off to the tropical climate of Regina, Saskatchewan last weekend for some ass-kicking and some fun. The Canada West Conference Championships ran Friday and
Saturday at the Regina Fieldhouse, and there were some outstanding performances from Calgary athletes.

Samantha Anderson continued to improve on her already impressive season as she won the women’s 60m hurdles in a Canadian Interuniver-sity Athletic Union qualifying time of 8.82 seconds. She’ll join teammate Jessica King, who qualified at a Jan. 12 meet in Saskatoon, in the blocks in Sherbrooke, Quebec next weekend. While Anderson was ripping up the track, Melissa Van Hal was elevating her game to another level with a convincing win in the high jump with a leap of 1.70m. Van Hal also managed to walk away with a second-place score of 3515.00 in the pentathlon. Anderson tied for fourth with teammate Michelle Romance with a score of 3475.00. Unfortunately, all three will be in tough for a medal this weekend in Quebec against some fierce competition. The Dino women sit a very respectable sixth in the Canadian Intercollegiate Athletic Union rankings
going into the final meet of the season.

On the men’s side, there was less to cheer about last weekend. There were however, some great individual efforts like Luke Ratzlaff’s win in the 600m despite not being in the final and supposedly fastest heat. The men slipped out of the national top 10 for the first time all season. The onus will be on such men as Darren Clarke, who placed second in the 300m with a qualifying time of 34.46 seconds, and Mike MacDonald who qualified in both the shot put and the weight throw two weeks ago.

The season came to an end for many of our Dino athletes this weekend. While there were undoubtedly some disappointed people on the team, by 12 a.m. Saturday night most of those frowns had been turned upside down. The annual Canada West awards banquet gave those who would not be moving on a chance to extend goodwill to those who are. It also gave them a chance to drink free wine, a welcome prize after a long year.