Track | thesil.ca

After a disappointing end to their cross country season, the Marauders track team is back and more motivated than ever to prove themselves on the track.

Last summer, several Marauders on both the men’s and women’s side were able to get huge personal best times in their respective distance, so the expectations heading into this indoor season are very high.

While some athletes did not perform to their potential at the Can Am Invitational meet last weekend, a couple of the more consistent runners on the team were phenomenal, running to personal best times in their very first meet of the season.

Luke Charbonneau proved himself in the 1000 m race, finishing third overall with a personal best time of 2:30.

“Charbonneau was a guy who was in 6th on the team at the start of the cross country season, and then he ends up being our best guy at CIS, had the race of his life, and now he’s come back and he’s kept the momentum going and he’s leading the charge indoors,” said head coach Paula Schnurr, whose 30 year-old meet record in the 1000 m was broken over the weekend.

Charbonneau’s main focus for the season will be over 1500 m.

Taylor Forbes was also a standout performer at the meet, finishing 7th overall in a pacey 1500 m race with a personal best time of 3:54.

Although Forbes has proven himself on the indoor track last season, his main focus is on his summer triathlon season, where he will be looking to top last year’s season that saw him qualify for the World Championships.

He will be focusing on the 3000 m for the season and will only be competing at OUA’s.

Blair Morgan also had an exceptional race, running away from the pack with 800 m to go in the 1500 m, which had him named the McMaster “kick-of-the-week” award recipient. He ran to a personal best time of 3:58, which is extremely fast—especially for the first meet of the season, but Morgan was not satisfied.

“There was definitely some left afterwards. I talked to Schnurr about doing a tempo run after but she decided the race was enough,” said Morgan.

Morgan’s main focus for the season will be qualifying for CI’s in the 3000 m.

Coach Schnurr credits Charbonneau, Forbes and Morgan’s success to their consistency and good decisions when it comes to training, their ability to stay healthy and their overall confidence.

“They just got out there and weren’t afraid…it didn’t matter if it was the first race of the season, they just got out and raced, and that’s what made the difference for them,” said Schnurr.

Some other notable performers on the men’s side that Schnurr is looking forward to seeing in full form this season include: Jeff Tweedle, Brandon Huzevka and rookie Matt Napier.

Tweedle has a lot of momentum coming into this track season, after having a breakthrough season last year that saw him run to a huge personal best time of 2:27 in the 1000 m.

“He’s really fit, so he’s coming in with some high expectations and it will be exciting to see how things work out,” said Schnurr.

Huzevka also had a standout season last year, and is looking to improve even more in his final year as a Marauder.

“His goal is to make [nationals], and that’s going to be really challenging for him, but I love watching him race, because he really competes and that’s exciting to watch,” said Schnurr.

Napier is a rookie that mainly focuses on indoor track, and Schnurr is excited for his first season as a Marauder due to his personal best times under his belt.

On the women’s side, although there were some disappointments, the team is looking forward to bouncing back this weekend at the Don Wright invitational, and for the rest of the season.

Maddy McDonald is looking to get back to where she was last season, when she ran to an indoor personal best time of 9:34 in the 3000 m, which qualified her for the CIS championships.

Chelsea Mackinnon is in her last season as a Marauder, and is looking to qualify for the CIS championships in the 1000 m after having a stellar indoor season last year that saw her run to a personal best time of 2:51 over the distance.

What coach Schnurr is most looking forward to however is the inter-team competition, and seeing the team strive to be among the top three in each distance—as the top three runners on the team for each race get to compete at the OUA championships.

“There’s really no given with who is going to be the top 3 at [the OUA championship]. There’s so many that are very close and they know they’re going to have to compete with their teammates to get a spot on the OUA team so that’s kind of fun to watch,” said Schnurr.

The majority of the team will be competing at the Don Wright Invitational at Western university on Jan. 17, where they will hope to prove themselves before the largest meet in the province—the McGill Invitational in Montreal.

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.

Laura Sinclair

Silhouette Staff

The snowy, slippery and cold conditions were not enough to slow down rookie Madeleine McDonald and veteran Lindsay Carson at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships on March 24 in Bydgoszcz, Poland. The two members of the Marauders’ cross country and track team managed to bundle up and use their experience with the snow to their advantage on the weekend. McDonald finished in 47thplace overall in the junior women’s race, and Carson finished in 60th place overall in the senior women’s race.

The two accomplished runners, with the help of their coaches Rory Sneyd and Paula Schnurr, made the tough decision to sit out this year’s track season in order to give everything they had into these world cross country championships. This meant that they would potentially be sacrificing a CIS medal at the prestigious CIS track and field meet in Edmonton.

This was a strategic decision that was necessary, however, for both of the athletes to increase their mileage and to perform their best in Poland this past weekend.

For rookie Madeleine McDonald, missing the track season was a good move, especially because of her outstanding result on the weekend, where she finished within the top 50 in the world. She will have plenty of opportunities to pick up a CIS track medal in future years, especially due to her tremendous potential that can only go uphill from this season. She has proven her dominance this year by quite handily beating other runners that are much older than her in her first University cross country season, which ultimately led to her 13th place finish at the CIS cross country championships.

She managed to carry that momentum to the one track race that she competed in this season, where she got off to a lead early in the 3000m and expanded that lead in the duration of the distance, winning the race by close to 20 seconds. She was the second Canadian to cross the finish line this past weekend, as she finished the 6km race in a time of 20:36, just two seconds behind teammate, rival and fellow rookie Madeleine Yungblut of the Guelph Gryphons. Together, they brought the Canadian team to a ninth place finish overall.

For veteran Lindsay Carson, missing out on the track season was not a huge loss either. She had already won the gold medal in the 3000m race at last year’s CIS championships in Winnipeg, and she also has several other CIS medals to her name. She could have easily won a gold medal repeat this year in the 3000m, but instead she decided to sacrifice another medal by competing among the best in the world.

She is not inexperienced when it comes to competing for Canada, however. She has worn the red and white singlet numerous times in her running career, and she has been a stand-out runner since the age of 14. Now, she is 23 years old, and despite being plagued with numerous injuries in the last couple of years, she has always managed to make a remarkable recovery and come back to the running scene better and more fit than ever.

She, too, proved her fitness at this meet, running the 8 km race in a time of 26:38, just three seconds behind one of her Canadian teammates, Rachel Hanna. The Canadian Senior Women’s team finished 8th overall.

Next on the schedule for the two accomplished athletes is a break before the training picks up for the outdoor track season, which gets underway in May. Carson will no longer be competing for McMaster, as her eligibility expires after this year. McDonald, however, still has four more years of running in maroon and grey, and her potential forecasts the possibility to compete for Canada again in future world championship meets.

In both the Senior and Junior women’s races at the World Cross Country Championships, the Kenyans won, while the USA team came fourth in the Senior women’s race and sixth in the Junior women’s race.

This was a strategic decision that was necessary, however, for both of the athletes to increase their mileage and to perform their best in Poland this past weekend.

Fraser Caldwell

Sports Editor

Lindsay Carson has battled for the better part of two years to find her health and her running stride, but that struggle was met with resounding success on Mar. 9.

The fourth-year member of the Marauder squad topped the field in the 3000m event at the CIS National Track Championships hosted by the University of Manitoba. The golden finish stands as a remarkable achievement for an athlete whose health issues had held her out of competition at the national level during the fall cross-country season.

Carson’s podium-topping performance during the Friday session of the three-day event was one of three medals garnered by the Marauders. The other two came by way of Katie Anderson, who won silver medals in the 1000m and 1500m races on Mar. 9 and 10, respectively.

The combined efforts of the Marauder women over the course of the weekend were enough to place the team ninth in the national field of 21 squads.

For her part, Carson indicates that winning her long-distance event was far from her mind as she entered competition in Manitoba, as her priority lay in performance alone.

“My approach to the race wasn’t associated with a place, it was associated with an effort,” said the fourth-year runner. “So my strategy was to run as relaxed as I could and by doing so I could save energy in my legs and save energy mentally. If I could do that I could really get up for the last few laps.”

Carson’s first reaction upon crossing the finish line was to assume that she had lost, ignorant of the fact that gold medal favourite Tamara Jewett had dropped out of the race midway through.

“To be honest, when I crossed the line I knew that I had given it my all but I sincerely thought that I had come third,” said the veteran Marauder. “I didn’t know that Tamara had dropped out, and I think not knowing actually boded well for me during the race. I didn’t have the pressure of knowing that I could actually win.

“I was gunning for second or third and finally started believing in myself in the last five metres of the race. I tried to out-lean [Guelph’s Andrea Seccafien] and I didn’t think that I got her. I thought that it was a valiant effort but that she got me at the line. It ended up being a photo finish and on paper we had the same time. That rarely happens in a distance race.”

The closeness of the finish aside, Carson finds herself in possession of a CIS gold medal after a lengthy period littered with injuries had the Marauder veteran doubting her running future. She indicates that the result – coming as it does after such struggle – is particularly sweet.

“It was very satisfying,” said Carson of her podium moment. “I was extremely happy with it from the finish but I think it became more satisfying each and every time another person came up to me and was genuinely happy with the performance. It’s not the fact that I won but the fact that a lot of people know and recognize the adversity that I’ve faced for the last two years.

“They know that I’ve struggled and to break through with this performance makes it all the more satisfying.”

Carson was lent support in that protracted struggle by her teammates, who formed a formidable long-distance squad for the Maroon and Grey this season. While the competitive environment of the track ultimately makes the Marauders’ efforts individual ones, the presence of strong training companions pushed Carson and her teammates forward.

The veteran member of the Maroon and Grey argues that the training benefits offered by her team were particularly potent this season as multiple representatives at the 3000m distance qualified as late as the CIS meet. That meant continued high-level companionship as Carson laboured toward nationals.

“It does help having more than one maroon singlet on the line and we had three in that race,” said the veteran of her medal-winning race in Manitoba. “Approaching the race itself it’s a very individual process, but throughout the season is where your teammates help. For your practices and workouts it really helps having others around you working at the same distance.

“Also, the fact that we had three at the CIS meet meant that we trained together longer throughout the season. If you’re done after OUAs, then you’re not training any more. With all of the girls making it to the CIS level, we kept that big, vibrant group. We use that energy during races, but there’s so much to think about during a race that you have to focus on yourself.”

In the wake of her national triumph, Carson is determined to take the wave of momentum she is currently riding into the spring and summer outdoor track season. Having built a measure of stability and race readiness through the indoor season, the veteran is confident in her ability to achieve even more outdoors.

“Right now I have a pretty clear view of my goal going forward,” said Carson. “I used the indoor season as a stepping stone to get me back on the circuit, get me back into racing and get me back into a positive relationship with running. Thankfully I ended the indoor season on a positive note and I can take that into the outdoor season.

“With that outdoor season approaching in May and June I’ll be getting some longer intervals in before the sharpening comes before competition.”

With another year remaining in her tenure with the Maroon and Grey, Carson hopes that continued success on the track will translate to the cross-country sphere.

After what she and her teammates believed to be a disappointing cross-country campaign this past fall, Carson and the Marauders will be looking for an all-around improvement on the trails.

“For McMaster, hopefully I’ll have a great outdoor season and be able to take that momentum into the cross-country season,” said the fourth-year veteran. “Because I think I can talk on behalf of the rest of the McMaster girls when I say that we were very disappointed in our finishes across the board.

“I think we’re all very hungry for next year and ready to improve.”

If indeed Carson can find another gear on the track, she has frightening potential in her final year of competition for the Maroon and Grey.

Fraser Caldwell

Sports Editor

Katie Anderson’s meteoric comeback on the track has been nothing short of remarkable this season, and that journey reached a new peak on Feb. 25.

Having excelled at the longer distances throughout the season, the Marauder veteran ran a personal best on route to a gold medal in the 1500m event at the OUA Championships. Running the race in 4:26.66, Anderson beat out her nearest competitor by nearly three complete seconds to cap a dominant performance.

Speaking in the wake of her gold medal finish, Anderson indicated her surprise at her ability to outpace the remainder of the field. Expecting a tighter pack, the Marauder found herself in only the most elite of company as the race played out.

“I didn’t really expect that,” said the fourth-year competitor. “It’s tough, because I thought that I could run 4:30 again, but I also thought that more of the girls who were running could run that. So I was surprised by how spread out the field was and by how comfortable I felt running that time. It was a huge personal best for me, both indoor and outdoor.”

Marauder coach Paula Schnurr noted that Anderson approached the OUA event wanting only to run to the best of her ability, unsure of what that would translate to in the standings. But with the provincial gold under her belt, Schnurr expects her star distance runner to take aim at a medal at the national level.

“She certainly has had a phenomenal year and it’s true that we’ve always kept in mind that the goal was always the CIS meet and a medal there,” said the coach. “That’s still the goal. Katie went into the OUAs just wanting to run fast and if that meant that she was going to win a medal, then great.

“I think she’ll probably take the same approach into the CIS meet but things are a bit different. When you get to that level, you’re racing to win and if the times are fast, that’s a bonus. So I think there’ll be a little bit more tactics involved. But Katie’s sights are set on a medal.”

Anderson echoed her coach in her belief that the CIS event will demand a more strategic approach. That necessity largely derives from the more evenly matched talent pool at the national level, where separating oneself from the pack is a much tougher affair.

“The OUA level has a very talented group of girls running and the thing about the CIS level is that you’re getting even more talent and even more girls running the same time,” said the Marauder veteran. “So you really have to figure out what your strengths are and pace it out that way.

“I know for example in the 1000m that there are a bunch of girls that can out-kick me through 600m or so, so I have to consider that tactically.”

In terms of a concrete goal at the upcoming national event at the University of Manitoba, Anderson stated that she would aim solely to achieve a personal best, and hope that such a time would stand her in good stead against the field on offer.

“My goal for every race has been to get a PB, because I feel that a personal best for me generally puts me in a fairly good position,” said Anderson. “So I would be happy if I could PB again. Even if I was dead last, if I was running 4:25, I’d be happy. It’s entirely new territory for me.”

While Anderson’s gold medal performance was the high point of the Marauders’ OUA efforts, the talent-laden women’s 3000m unit also made a splash over the course of the weekend, with Victoria Coates claiming a bronze at that distance.

Several McMaster runners are nationally ranked in that event, and Schnurr believes that the highly competitive nature of the Marauders’ longer-distance squad will stand them in good stead at the national championships.

With Coates, Lindsay Carson and Sarah Haliburton all slated to compete in the 3000m event in Manitoba, McMaster has a legitimate hope of reaching the podium at the distance.

“The CIS event will be the first time that all three girls will have run the 3000m at the same race,” said Schnurr of her long distance specialists. “Victoria and Sarah ran together at Notre Dame and Victoria came out on top, and then Sarah ran it a bit faster in Boston. It’s hard to know who’s got the upper hand but all of the girls are very fit and again it will probably come down to a bit of strategy.

“They want to get some energy from each other and there’s going to be some benefit from that. However, they’re going to want to beat each other as well, and they have to treat each other as competitors.”

On the men’s side, long distance standout Graham Bowes continued his outstanding season with a fifth-placed finish in the 3000m event, and notched eighth position in the 1500m. Schnurr explains that Bowes’ 3000m result in particular represented a shattering of his personal best, as he continues his rapid ascent up the national rankings.

“That was a huge personal best,” said the Marauder coach. “He ran 8:28 at Notre Dame and that was converted to 8:32 on the oversized track. For him to come back at the OUA Championship and run at 8:23 was unbelievable. After running that first PB he knew that he could run faster, but there just weren’t any chances.

“He knew he would have to put it all out there at the OUAs. It really paid off because now he’s off to the CIS event.”

Anderson, Bowes and the rest of the Marauder contingent will wrap up their season in Manitoba when they compete at the CIS National Championships from Mar. 8-10.

Fraser Caldwell

Sports Editor

There is an inherent pain and longing involved in rehabilitation. Being unable to perform at a level one has become accustomed to brings with it a host of emotions and a hefty dose of anxiety.

But for two members of the Marauders track program, lengthy layoffs from competition have been followed by unparalleled success. Graham Bowes and Katie Anderson – both enjoying career years on the track this season – have each overcome serious ailments to become leading members of their respective squads.

For his part, Bowes battled various injuries to his legs that prevented him from running for any considerable length of time throughout the summer. The advent of the new track season however has seen Bowes emerge as a nationally ranked distance threat, particularly in the 1500m event where he ran a personal best at the McGill Team Challenge on Jan. 27.

His time of 3:53.86 saw Bowes finish fifth at the Montreal meet and move into ninth in the CIS at the 1500m distance. The results are impressive, and a far cry from the struggles that the fourth-year veteran endured over the summer.

“My legs just basically blew up, and it got to the point where I could only run for 5-10 minutes because it hurt too much,” said Bowes of his injury woes. “I thought that taking a few weeks off and getting a bit of physio would solve it.

“It got to the beginning of July and it wasn’t working. So I started getting physio three or four times a week and getting on the bike – doing anything that wasn’t running just to get back on the team again. Even if I’d been healthy the whole time, my goal was just to be on the racing squad, not to lead the team or anything.”

Bowes believes that his time on the shelf may actually have aided him in his success this season, as he indulged in an unusual amount of cardio work while unable to hit the track.

“What helped was that because of the injury I was doing a lot of extra cardio. I was out on the bike twice a day just trying to do anything to be healthy again. I think that paid dividends in the long run.”

Meanwhile, Katie Anderson was hit with the misfortune of mononucleosis in December 2010, and struggled for months to work herself back into competition shape. Her efforts have finally come to fruition however, as Anderson finds herself among the upper echelon in the country at the 1500m distance.

Garnering a silver medal at the McGill Team Challenge, Anderson is now ranked fourth in that event at the national level, one place behind Marauder teammate Lindsay Carson. Her sudden success surprises the veteran McMaster runner, and vindicates her lengthy efforts toward recovery.

“I was diagnosed with mono in December of last year, and it’s taken me the better part of the year since to get back into the swing of things,” said Anderson. “I didn’t have as much success as I would have liked in cross-country, so I’m very happy with the success that’s come. Am I surprised? Probably, yes.

“What I have learned from this is that hard work does pay off. I spent all summer pounding away at mileages and not seeing results. To have worked this hard for a full year and finally have this success is great. It’s been a long journey, but I’m fired up. I’ve never been so ready to race in my entire life. It’s my last year, I’m finally healthy. Everything seems to be aligning.”

While they have already accomplished career-best results at this early stage of their racing seasons, both Bowes and Anderson believe that they are capable of much more.

“That’s what I find most exciting about this season: I have no idea,” said Anderson of what she is capable of achieving this year. “I’ve felt the strongest that I’ve ever felt in races this year. That gives me a lot of confidence and the feeling that maybe I can run faster. How fast? We’ll see.

“I think I’ve got more confidence now,” Bowes added. “The guys who won that race [at McGill] came through in 3:50, and I don’t see myself as being worse than those guys. In my next few races, I’m going to focus less on time and more on being at the front of the pack.”

Anderson is aided in her quest to improve by the exceptionally strong field of distance runners she finds herself immersed in at McMaster. Alongside the breakout veteran are fellow nationally ranked racers Lindsay Carson, Jillian Wyman, Victoria Coates and Sarah Haliburton.

Such a group can only help Anderson get better, and she argues that the support offered by her teammates has been a pivotal part of her growth as an athlete.

“I think it works in a number of ways,” said Anderson of the benefits of her strong team. “It’s great to have a bunch of people to do workouts with. It’s nice to have someone around who’s at the same level. If you have a bad day, they push you. If they have a bad day, you push them. People assume that track is just an individual sport but the team has a huge impact.”

Both Anderson and Bowes have the opportunity to further demonstrate their progression in coming weeks.

The Marauder tracks teams will be splitting time between meets at Notre Dame and York this weekend. The Meyo Invitational in South Bend, Indiana is slated to run from Feb. 3 to 4, while the York meet will be conducted on Feb. 4.

Fraser Caldwell

Sports Editor

It was the first step on their competitive journey for McMaster’s track athletes, and the results speak to the potential that both squads possess.

The Marauders men’s and women’s track teams took part in the annual Can Am Meet in Windsor from Jan. 13-14, and while both teams combined for only three medals over the course of the event, coach Paula Schnurr was encouraged by what she saw from her athletes in their first action.

“This is the first time out,” said Schnurr of her message to her runners. “Let’s keep things in perspective. You get a chance to see where you’re at, and coaches get the chance to see the same thing. Who gets to go on to the next meets is determined on the performance in the first one.

“Was there a lot of pressure? Not really. It just motivated people to do some work over the holidays. It’s hard when you go home and have a bit of a break through exams. I think people continued to work hard and it showed.”

Schnurr singled out veteran distance runner Graham Bowes for particular praise, whose time in the 3000m event in Windsor stands as a personal best and has him currently ranked seventh in the country at that distance.

“I think we were very pleased as a coaching staff, particularly with Graham Bowes. It was his first time out and he ran a [personal best]. Last year unfortunately he didn’t make the CIS event but this year he could definitely have a shot at making it to that stage.

“He was up against two Guelph guys who were part of their national championship winning cross-country team. So it was a good race, and a perfect time for him to take advantage of a good pace and hold on to it.”

Two other Marauder men set personal bests in the 3000m race, as Andrew Bysice and Cory McCurry finished seventh and eighth respectively.

On the women’s side, McMaster had success in the 1500m event, where a number of veteran runners give them substantial depth. The race saw the return to action of Lindsay Carson and Katie Anderson, who finished second and third respectively after lengthy injury layoffs.

Schnurr expressed her satisfaction in seeing both women return to the competitive fold, both of whom should figure prominently in the Marauders’ late-season medal push.

“Lindsay’s definitely getting there,” said the coach of her star distance performer’s rehabilitation process. “She’s going in the right direction and she’s been healthy, which is a huge bonus for her with her past. Training is going well but this was her first race in quite a while.

“Katie Anderson was out last year, having had mono through the indoor season. She didn’t run at all, so it’s been a really long time for her. Based on her training I could tell that she was ready for a good race. Was I surprised? Not really. But I think she was quite happy with it and a little surprised herself.”

The two veteran returnees are part of a deep pool of McMaster women at the 1500m distance, a group that will undoubtedly challenge for silverware at the highest levels this season.

“The strength on the distance side is in the 1500m between Lindsay, Katie, Jill [Wyman], Victoria Coates and Sarah Haliburton,” said Schnurr. “We’ve got five girls who could be in the top 10-12 in the country. Lindsay is third, Katie is fourth and Jill is sixth at this point.”

Much of the women’s squad remains a work in progress at this stage, as several runners strive to return from injury and the team tutors a sizeable rookie class in the sprint distances.

“When we looked at the women’s side and the number of women we left behind due to injury, it was almost half of the team we had last season,” said Schnurr of her Windsor contingent. “Victoria Coates is coming back and will race this weekend. Stephanie MacNeill is out with a bit of an injury. Courtney Patterson is coming back. Sara Giovannetti and Rachel Lamb are injured.

“There’s five girls there that were a big part of the team in the past three, four years. But they’re starting to come around.

“Our women on the sprint side are generally rookies, so in terms of improvement it comes down to being consistent with their training. This is a year where you want to keep people healthy and training, and building to their second, third and fourth years.”

The Marauder men also find themselves dealing with a few nagging injuries, but Schnurr remains confident that McMaster’s sprinters will be in a position to improve their record-setting pace from last season.

“We’re looking forward to the 4x200m and 4x400m teams to be back up and competitive again this year,” said the coach. “I know that they want to improve on last year’s time. Jimmy [Tat] and Scott [Hutchinson] are both looking to improve their times in the 300m.”

The Marauders will have a chance to demonstrate such improvement this coming weekend, as they travel to London to take part in the Don Wright Track and Field Challenge on Jan. 21.