Marauders ahead of the pack in London

The McMaster Marauders track team gave it their all on Saturday, Jan. 19 at the Don Wright Invitational track meet at Western University. Numerous Marauders made their debut at this meet, and there were lots of good times and victorious moments for the McMaster runners at the competitive races.

In the 300 m, Kara McPherson ran a personal best time of 43.53 s, which got her to a third place finish.

After the 300 m, the 1000 m were next on the track and the field was dominated by Marauders, with the majority of the heat being filled with runners with the McMaster singlet. In the women’s race, veteran Jill Wyman won, with a time of 2:57. Not too far behind was teammate Claire Stewart in third place with a time of 3:06.

In the men’s 1000 m, the first, second and third place finishers were all Marauders. Men’s captain Jeremy Walsh won the race with a time of 2:31, while teammates Eric Barry finished second (2:32) and Sean Bowen finished third (2:33).

“Running with teammates certainly made it a more enjoyable experience,” said men’s captain and 1000 m champion Jeremy Walsh of the race. “That said, running against teammates made me more nervous than any other race. I know from running workouts with these guys exactly how fast they are and knew that if I didn't have a lead on them before the last straightaway, that I could have easily been last in the race.”

Walsh plans to focus on the 1500 m for the rest of the season, which he hopes will end with him living the varsity athlete’s dream of competing at the CIS Championships. “As my last year running for McMaster, and having been close to qualifying in the past, not racing at CIS would leave a hole in my varsity career,” said Walsh.

In the men’s 1500 m, Taylor Forbes made his debut on a high note, finishing in second place with a personal best time of 4:02.

Lastly, the men’s 4x200 m team, consisting of Phil Bottero, Connor Mabbott, Garrick Mok, Olu Olotu, came second and ran a group personal best time of 1:35.

Next up for the Marauders is the McGill Invitational meet in Montreal, where the team will face fierce competition from all over the province at one of the most prestigious track meets in Canada.

The team would also like to wish fellow Marauder Maddy McDonald good luck at the NACAC Championships this weekend in Jamaica, where she will be representing Canada at the elite cross country championship meet.