McMaster track team prepares for London

After a successful season on the cross country course, the Marauders running team is back in action on the track.

The team laced up their spikes on Jan. 10-11 at the CAN AM meet in Windsor, Ont. and were able to run to some impressive times, especially this early on in the season.

The women’s team was led by Madeleine McDonald, a former member of the Canadian junior cross country team, who ran to a time of 4:42 in the 1500 m, which brought her to a 9th place finish overall in the quick race.

McDonald is expected to be a huge threat in track this season, given her extremely successful outdoor season last summer that saw her run to a huge personal best time in the 3000 m, (9:36), which ended up qualifying her for the Junior Pan Am Games, where she finished in second place overall.

Crossing the line after McDonald in the 1500 m race was Raquel Burgess, who finished the race in a time of 4:55.

Another impressive performance on the women’s side includes Kaitlyn Pansegrau’s fifth place finish in the 1000 m, which saw her run to a personal best time of 3:05.

On the men’s side, Brandon Huzevka had an impressive race, finishing second overall in the 600 m with a time of 1:25.

In the 1500 m race, rookie Patrick Deane ran to a great time of 4:02, while Captain Blair Morgan ran to a time of 4:05.

For Captain Morgan, after an incredible cross country season, his performance on the track will only improve as the season goes on, and he could be a top ten OUA contender in the 3000 m or 1500 m race.

In the grueling 3000 m race, rookie Paul Rochus broke the 9-minute barrier and ran to a time of 8:57, which was good enough for second place overall.

The team will be joined by more athletes on the roster this coming weekend in London Ont. at the Don Wright Challenge, where they will attempt to reach the podium and run to more personal best times in the early stage of the season.