Competing for the first time as a team this season, the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns track and field team jumped out of the gates and produced exceptional early season results this past weekend at the Golden Bear Open in Edmonton.
Making her debut on the university circuit, freshman Sandra Latrace served notice that she will be a threat this season in both the long jump and 60-metre sprint. In the long jump, Latrace moved to the top of the CIS rankings by more than 15 centimetres and claimed the top spot at the Golden Bear Open with a leap of 6.17 metres. The mark in the long jump was also an Alberta junior and under-23 record.
In the 60-metre sprint, Latrace moved into the CIS top 10 with a time of 7.72 seconds, which placed her second among university finishers at the meet this past weekend.
Two-time reigning CIS champion Aaron Hernandez continued to prove he will be the man to beat in the triple jump as he moved to the top of the CIS rankings with a solid meet winning jump of 15.19 metres.
The Horns other reigning CIS champion, Peter Millman, continued the team’s strong performance in the throwing events by winning both the shot put and weight throw in Edmonton. The 2015 CIS shot put champion moved into second place in the CIS rankings in both disciplines. The Pronghorns placed 1-2 in the shot put with Millman taking top spot with a toss of 16.62 metres, while teammate Ryan Sommer finished second and moved into the top ten in the CIS rankings with a throw of 14.80m.
Millman won the weight throw by nearly four metres with a toss of 18.78 metres. Rookie teammate Ben Ingvaldson made his mark in Canada West in the weight throw, finishing third with a toss of 14.64 metres in his first university meet, while Ryan Sommer was fourth.
In the women’s throwing circle, Diane Marin placed fourth in weight throw with a mark of 13.80m while teammates Lara Roth, Ariel Chessall and Amanda Weiler finished fifth, sixth and seventh respectively.
On the track, the top results on the men’s side came from senior sprinter Phillip Rockerbie and rookies Matthew Knapik and Garrett Mckay. In the 60-metre hurdles, Rockerbie finished third with a time of 8.70 seconds, while Knapik was second in his 300-metre heat with a time of 36.32 seconds and McKay won his heat with a time of 36.67sec.
“Sandra’s results in the 60m and long jump were definitely the highlight of the weekend, but we had strong results from the majority of the team,” says head coach Larry Steinke. “This is the third competition for most of the teams in Canada West and our first, so to have this strong a showing is definitely promising for the rest of the year."
Next up for the Horns is a split trip on the weekend of February 5-6 when they head to Winnipeg for the Bison Classic and to Edmonton for the Alberta Indoor Games.