The men and women of the University of Calgary track and field team traveled to Windsor, Ontario Mar. 11-13 to compete in the Canadian Interuniversity Sport Track and Field Championships. The lady Dinos finished second to a very strong University of Saskatchewan team while the men’s team placed 15th of the 19 teams, even though they only entered five of the 17 events.
Calgary’s superstar for the weekend was Jessica Zelinka who landed a gold in the 60m hurdles and owned the pentathlon, breaking her own CIS record en route to another gold. Amazing as that is, she was also fastest qualifier in the 60m heats, before capturing a silver medal in the finals. If those short bursts of energy aren’t enough to astound you, this well rounded athlete also had the third longest jump.
On top of all that, Zelinka was coping with a concussion she suffered at the Canada West championship meet two weeks earlier, but her performance was not greatly affected.
"She was unable to train for two weeks between the meets," reported Head Coach Doug Lamont. "She wasn’t at her best."
Finishing right behind her stupendous teammate in the pentathlon was Samantha Anderson, who now wanders the university with silver hanging from her neck.
The Dinos’ only other gold came courtesy the women’s 4x800m relay team. Beth Trites, Chelsea Wyrostok, Jackie Jones and Shannon Slater exhibited excellent effort and coordination, not to mention the balancing miracle it takes to fit four people atop the podium. Their time also set a new Dinos record.
Jones and Slater also fared well independently in the more lengthy dashes. Jones took silver in the 600m while Slater earned bronzes in both the 1000m and 1500m.
The female Dinos were also worthy of silver in the 4x400m relay race.
Two of the five men who competed for the U of C brought home medals of their own. David Shanks secured a silver decoration for his performance in the 600m while Nathan Kendrick’s average velocity over 3000m warranted him the honour of a bronze.
Anderson, Shanks and Kendrick have all completed their final year as Dinos–and what a way to go.
"We had a really good performance," declared a proud Lamont. "Everyone that went did as good as they could do and we got our fair share of medals."