Mac posts personal bests at McGill

The Marauders track team travelled to the largest meet of the season last weekend at McGill University, where the majority of the team was able to run to some personal best times.

Among the top performances came from Maddy McDonald, whose time of 9:43 in the 3000 m has officially qualified her for the CIS track and field championships.

McDonald - who sat out the indoor season last year due to her commitment to the world junior cross country team - ran a great first race, and followed the coaches’ strategy to a tee.

“I knew once the gun went off, she’s a competitor, so she’s going to compete,” said head coach Paula Schnurr.

“I told her that you don’t need to be leading but you need to be in the pack, and just off the back of the pack if that’s more comfortable,” added Schnurr.

“The first 2 kilometres will probably be pretty comfortable and pretty relaxed and then you’ll need to do work in the last kilometre. And that’s what she did.”

The weekend served as a training weekend for McDonald, as her main focus will be the Valentine Invitational in Boston on Feb. 8, where she will try to better her time to just under 9:40.

In the men’s 3000 m, Taylor Forbes, Jordan Bierema, Austen Forbes and Taylor Reid all ran very similar times, but were split up into different heats.

This was a result of athletes from other universities being entered in the race with unrealistic seed times, so the majority of the Marauder men had to do most of the work leading for the majority of their races.

“I think we seeded our guys with realistic seed times, unfortunately some people were seeded faster than they should have been. So, unfortunately for Forbes he was the best in his race so he ended up leading, and the same thing happened with Bierema in the next section,” said Schnurr.

Forbes led his heat with an 8:33, and Bierema led his heat right after with an 8:35. Austen Forbes finished right after Bierema with a time of 8:36, and Taylor Reid was not too far behind running to a time of 8:39.

Captain Blair Morgan was far off from his best time, running an 8:47 3000 m, compared to his 8:29 that he ran a couple weeks before. He will be looking to run extremely fast in Boston at the Valentine Invitational in a couple of weeks.

Gabe Ghiglione led his heat with an 8:50, and not too far behind was Paul Rochus who ran a personal best time of 8:54.

For the Forbes twins along with Taylor Reid, this will be one of their last track races, as they have to do some additional training for their triathlon season this summer that they do not want to be injured for.

“We focused on running a couple of indoor races and not really key on running OUA’s, it’s unfortunate for us and our team, but I think what is really important for them is that they are good for cross country and that they’re ready to go for the summer,” said Schnurr.

In the men’s 600 m race, Schnurr was very impressed with Brandon Huzevka, who finished the race with a personal best time of 1:22. Jeff Mah and fourth year Greg Hitchon also reached personal best with times of 1:23, and 1:24 respectively.

In the women’s 1500 m, Chelsea Mackinnon and Maddy McDonald finished neck and neck with a time of 4:45.

Both Mackinnon and McDonald were hoping to run faster, but Mackinnon is just getting into racing again after a year of injury problems, and McDonald was tired from her CIS-qualifying 3000 m run the night before.

Mackinnon will look to run the 1000 m at the Valentine Invitational.

Also in the 1500 m, Kaitlyn Pansegrau ran to a personal best time of 4:51, and fellow second year Raquel Burgess ran to a personal best time in the 3000 m of 10:27.

These are two huge personal best times that Schnurr credits to their consistency in training over the last year.

In the men’s 1500 m, there were a number of personal best times and great individual races from Taylor Forbes, who ran a 3:56 while once again leading the entire race.

Rookie Patrick Deane and Jeff Tweedle ran to a time of 4:01 in the same event, while Blair Morgan and Luke Charbonneau both ran to a time of 4:03.

Deane was impressive in his first 1500 m of the season, and coach Schnurr is both surprised and pleased with his performance, especially as a rookie, as he is still adjusting to the pressures of first-year university.

“I’m a little surprised, but he is very talented, he works so hard, he’s extremely committed, he seems to be making it work with school and living in res and keeping up with his training,” said Schnurr, “I’m excited for his university career because I know right now he could probably run under four minutes, that’s his goal this season.”

Every week, the Marauders hand out a “Kick of the Week” jacket to two of the athletes that had the best kick, or best performance.

Maddy McDonald won the Kick of the Week jacket for the women’s team, and Brandon Huzevka won the jacket for the men’s team.

The Marauders will look to keep the momentum rolling this coming weekend at the York Invitational, and the following weekend at the prestigious Valentine Invitational in Boston.