In just the team's second meet of the season, the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns track and field squad continues to produce encouraging results as they prepare for the Canada West Championships.
This past weekend at the University of Manitoba Bison Classic, the Horns earned five medals. This comes on the heels of a six-medal performance at the Golden Bear Open in Edmonton two weeks previous.
Coming off a double gold performance in Edmonton, Horns' thrower Peter Millman continued his early season success in Winnipeg by throwing a personal best 18.01 metres in the weight throw. The throw netted Millman a gold medal for the second consecutive meet.
He then narrowly missed out on a second consecutive shot put gold, getting edged in the last round by Chris Pickering of Regina. His silver medal winning throw of 16.33 metres was just shy of the personal best he set at the Golden Bear Open.
Teammate Ryan Sommer also established a personal best in the shot put en route to a bronze medal win. His result of 15.14 metres moved him into eighth spot in the CIS rankings.
Phillip Rockerbie also medaled for the Horns, finishing third in the 60-metre hurdles with a time of 8.60 seconds. He is still ranked second in Canada West.
Aaron Hernandez, who sits in second place in the CIS triple jump rankings, had a tough weekend and didn't manage a measured mark.
On the women’s side, Kayla Gallagher won the weight throw event with a toss of 17.90 metres, while Montana Forsyth threw a personal best of 14.57m to finish fifth.
"We had a mixed bag of results for the weekend,” says head coach Larry Steinke. “Aaron had a tough weekend adjusting to the speed of the runway but a number of athletes picked up the slack and that helped to keep us ahead of both the University of Alberta and University of Calgary in the national rankings. Things are definitely looking good heading into this weekend at the U of Alberta and then the Canada West Championships in three weeks’ time."
The Horns continue their preparations leading up to the Canada West Championships that will be held Feb. 21-22 back in Edmonton.