Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
RED DEER – Saturday's lesson for the MacEwan Griffins women's indoor track team – they have a strong contender coming after their championship.
The Red Deer College Queens proved they'll be a handful for the powerhouse Griffins by topping the women's team points standings at the Alberta Colleges Athletics Conference Running Room Grand Prix #2 on Saturday in the central Alberta city. RDC had 58 points to MacEwan's 52.
While there are many caveats to that, such as the Griffins not entering anyone in the women's 3000 – an event they traditionally dominate – and the fact head coach Drew Carver intended the meet as more of a training session, to say the Queens are on the Griffins' radar now is an understatement.
"On the women's side, it was a little surprising," said Carver. "Red Deer's a lot stronger than I expected. So, going into the championship knowing that they're this strong, it's going to actually be a very close contest for us.
"The thing I figured out is we can almost go toe-to-toe with Red Deer, except if any other school gets in between us and separates us from points. That's where Lethbridge having a couple strong 600-metre runners – if they get in between us and Red Deer and we are not getting as many points, we're going to be in a little bit of trouble.
"The 3000, 1500 area will be really strong for us, but when it gets to the 1000, 600, 300, then it gets a little tougher. Now that they've added that 4x200 relay, that lends itself to the sprint end, so it's going to be interesting."
Either way, the Griffins will be going into the March 21-22 ACAC Championship (U of A Pavilion) with a 'Game On' mentality as they aim for a fifth-straight women's team championship.
They had several positive performances on Saturday that give Carver confidence his team is trending towards that goal.
Most notably was Shaunice Burgers' run in the women's 600 metres, going sub 1:43 for the first time in a personal best 1:42.79 to finish second. Bailey Stang was fourth in 1:44.40 – also a PB for her.
"That was nice to see they're going in the right direction and we'll be able to pick up some points in that area if those two girls keep going that way," said Carver.
Especially since he believes Burgers can go even faster. On Red Deer's three-lane track, they put two athletes in each lane off the start, causing her to be blocked for the early part of the race.
"There was a little bit of a goofy system they did on the start," said Carver. "They put two athletes in the lane and the girl got a jump ahead of her and ... took the whole lane up so she had to wait two corners before she could pull out and pass. So, I think if she gets a better start, she's going to go even faster."
Ember Large, the reigning ACAC women's indoor track athlete of the year, also had a strong meet for MacEwan, winning the women's 1000 in 3:10.00.
"She's just a true athlete who comes and competes with all of her effort," said Carver. "She's a gifted athlete. It doesn't take a lot of training for her to be a strong runner. I know with her course load and practicum, it's been really tough for her to maintain her running. She's been doing the best she can.
"It was nice to see her come out and run a smooth 1000. We set the race plan and she just followed it right to the letter. I think in a little bit more intense competition, she's going to go even faster, which is what we need."
Other women's results for MacEwan included a clean sweep in the 1500 with Kiana Row (5:15.88), Large (5:18.29) and Ashley Tymkow (5:18.94) taking the top-three spots with a comfortable pace.
James Thomson was in the hunt in both the men's 1000 and 1500 on Saturday (Robert Antoniuk photo).
On the men's side, the biggest takeaway is how Carver's sprinters were able to step up and run the longer 600, while quickly recovering to set a new ACAC record in the newly-added 4x200 relay.
Connor Swaby, Omar Medina, Caelen Begg and Thomas Williams won in 1:38.34.
That was right after Begg finished third in the 600 (1:29.18), Swaby was 13th (1:35.87) and Medina 18th (1:41.10). All three are stronger in the 300, which wasn't contested on Saturday.
"Connor gave it a really good shot," said Carver. "I was impressed with the way he ran it and same with Omar. For all these sprint guys, this is way beyond their normal distance. They looked at it as endurance training for their 300, so I think it paid off.
"They did well in the fact they ran a 600, weren't feeling the best and then went out and ran a 4x200. I was pleased to see they could punch that out and pretty much do it back to back."
In other results, James Thomson placed fifth in the men's 1500 (4:28.24) and seventh in the 1000 (2:48.23).
MacEwan finished fifth in the men's team standings with 23 points, but their strongest events (300 and 4x400 relay) weren't contested.
"We're going to go into that championship knowing they didn't run a 300 and we usually get points in that," said Carver. "And if James can pick up a few places we still have an outside shot (at the team title)."
