Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
CALGARY – Running on fumes with four hours of sleep after enduring a 36-hour journey home from the FISU Winter Universiade in Russia, Ember Large incredibly won four medals and captured female athlete of the year at the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference indoor track championship on Saturday.
Large's gutsy performance after spending the past two weeks representing Team Canada in cross country skiing also led the Griffins to their fifth ACAC women's team banner in the past six years.
"That's a testament to what a solid athlete she is," said MacEwan head coach Drew Carver. "She raced her guts out in the cross country at FISU and then came back here and, knowing that she's dead tired, she just went out in every race and just did the best she could."
That secured MacEwan's fourth-straight ACAC women's championship, continuing a dynasty despite turning over the entire roster.
"It was a pleasant surprise," said Carver. "It's a combination of a team that comes to training almost regularly every night. They are willing to do the workouts and put in the effort. They recognize the end goal is achievable.
"This is a first year team. None of these kids have been at the championship before. That's the best part about this team this year."
Ember Large won the ACAC's female runner of the year award. She poses with CEO Mark Kosak afterward (SAIT photo).
Large's epic itinerary began in the heart of Siberia (Krasnoyarsk) where she wrapped up two weeks representing Team Canada in cross country skiing, continued with flights to Moscow, Amsterdam and Edmonton before a bus ride to Calgary the next morning.
Somehow, she still had enough in the tank to win the prestigious top female of the meet.
"It's pretty phenomenal actually," said the rookie indoor track athlete. "I never expected anything like that, especially just coming into my first year of track ever. It was pretty cool."
Hardly at her best after competing in multiple events in Russia, Large still had enough in the tank at the ACAC Championship to win the women's 1000m, place second in the women's 1500m, take bronze in the women's 600 and help the Griffins' 4x400m relay team snatch a silver medal.
"Honestly, I'm not feeling that great right now," said Large, who also got points for the Griffins in the women's 300, placing seventh. "I got a bit sick when I came back from Russia and I just had it in my head that I was coming here and was going to do this. Now I'm ready for a nap. My body is feeling it right now."
Ember Large receives one of her four medals in Calgary (SAIT photo).
Emma Steele, a Canada West second team all-star in cross country in the fall, also had a huge meet for the Griffins, winning the women's 1500m and 3000m, and placing fourth in the 1000m before also factoring in the women's 4x400m relay team's silver medal.
Emma Steele, centre, and teammate Ashley Tymkow, left, pose on the women's 3000m podium (SAIT photo).
Shaunice Burgers, also a member of the relay squad, came through with a pair of individual silvers in the women's 300 and 600. And Ashley Tymkow, also part of that relay team, won silver in the women's 3000, was fourth in the 1500 and fifth in the 1000.
"Shaunice, who basically struggled with her warmup when she first started, ended up medaling twice in the 300 and the 600, while also being on the relay team," said Carver. "It was a massive improvement for Shaunice. That's the type of team we had, they just came out and did what they had to."
Shaunice Burgers, centre, won two individual silver medals for the Griffins and was also on their silver-winning 4x400m relay team (SAIT photo).
Large notes the entire team, which also included Cassandra Mastel-Marr (ninth in 1000 and 1500), Daniella Wasielewski (15th in 1000), Bailey Stang (eighth in 600) and Kiersten Rajotte (part of sixth-place 4x400 relay team with Mastel-Marr, Stang and Wasielewski).
"None of us would have been able to do it without all of the other people there," said Large.
"I think it just speaks volumes to how the team connects with each other," she added. "I don't know what the team's been like in past years, but I feel the team's just so connected that it works out to (a championship)."
On the men's side, the Griffins settled for another runner-up performance to the SAIT Trojans, but had plenty of medals to talk about.
Connor Swaby takes the baton from Reece Runco en route to running the final leg to gold in the men's 4x400m relay (SAIT photo).
MacEwan's deep men's sprinting group combined to win the men's 4x400m relay (Caelen Begg, Thomas Cross-Trush, Reece Runco and Connor Swaby beat SAIT by four seconds).
"The men's relay team went out hard and thought they could break the record," said Carver. "They came within about a half second of doing it.
"It's just one of those things – the track is a good track, but not the greatest for running on," he added of Calgary's Repsol Centre. "It's just not quite the quality of what they could have had at the Butterdome, if they would have gone hard there (at the ACAC Running Room Grand Prix #2)."
Individually, Cross-Trush claimed the silver in the men's 300 with a time of 36.17, losing to SAIT's Brent Stephen (35.61), while Runco won bronze (36.33), Swaby finished fourth (36.39), Begg sixth (38.39), Andrei Pop ninth (38.82) and Omar Medina 11th (39.07).
Thomas Cross-Trush, right, was second in the men's 300m to old nemesis Brent Stephen of SAIT (SAIT photo).
Runco also won bronze in the men's 600, while Begg was seventh.
"Reece was our man who performed at the top of the pile," said Carver. "He killed a really good 600m time and then he turned around and got a little bit of a break (one hour) and turned out a pretty solid 400 for our relay team."
Scott Kohlman hit the podium with a bronze in the men's 3000, while placing fourth in both the men's 1000 and 1500. Fellow distance runner Owen Guenette was battling an injury and finished ninth in the 3000 and 15th in the 1500, well off of his best times.
"It was really tough because we knew when Owen had gone down with an injury that kind of put a big hole in our program for us to catch SAIT," said Carver. "He ran, but he ran injured. It was tough to watch because you knew Owen has so much more in him, but it wasn't going to happen this weekend."
Scott Kohlman accepts his bronze medal for the men's 3000m (SAIT photo).
