Thirty years ago marked the first time the University of Windsor held CIAU Track and Field Championships at the St. Denis Centre. With some of the most impressive performances in CIS history taking place this season the March 12th-14th event should bring just as much entertainment and excitement to the CIS Track and Field Championships as it has the past nine occasions it was held in Windsor.

Over the next ten we will be highlighting some of the greatest moments that have taken place at the St. Denis Centre during the 1985, 1991, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2003, 2004, 2009 and 2010 Track and Field Championships leading up to this year's event.

One Point

By Richard Johnston

Leo was on a roll with Inception and Shutter Island but no Oscar. The Windsor Spitfires Taylor Hall went number one in the NHL draft and Vancouver hosted the world, putting on a great show.

Coming off the first double team title by a host school in CIS history, the Windsor Lancers looked to defend both titles in 2010 and fight off the rest of the CIS who looked to spoil the home field advantage.

The end of the 2009 season saw many CIS stars such as Jamie Adjetey-Nelson, Jim Steacy and Derek Watkins complete their eligibility and open the door in their respective events for other athletes to claim individual titles.

In 2008 teams struggled to get around Montreal due to a snow storm that most won't forget. Windsor in 2010 was a little different; with temperatures over 10 degrees Celsius, there were jokes tossed around that the event should be held outside. While meet organizers opened up the outdoor track for warm ups, the competition remained indoors, no surprise. The CIS did get to witness some nice weather in the most southern portion of the country.

While the weather outside was heating up, so was the competition inside.

There were a number of strong female performances that would be worthy of consideration for Athlete of the Meet.

Heather Hamilton from York University set a new CIS record in the women's Pole vault. Vaulting 4.23m, she was well clear of the rest of the competition that saw silver medalist Leah Vause (Saskatchewan) finish with a height of 4.00m. Heather still remains the CIS record holder but with Western's Robin Bone heading into the 2015 competition with a seed of 4.36m we could see a change to that record.

Women's Shot Put saw Taryn Suttie from Saskatchewan break the 20 year old CIS record held by Shannon Kekula (also from Saskatchewan) by one centimeter.  One centimeter or not, Taryn would go on to break her own record in two future CIS competitions. If it was not for Windsor Lancer Celine Freeman-Gibb, Taryn would possess the top three all-time CIS performances.

In the distance events Megan Brown (Toronto) was attempting the 1000m, 1500m, 3000m triple in a very tough year. Megan would go home with three medals, but only one gold. Running 4:23 in the 1500m saw Megan out kick Guelph's Rachel Cliff for her lone gold medal. She would earn silver medals in very close 1000m and 3000m races. It would be Rachel Cliff who took the 3000m, running 9:21 which is the fastest 3000m run at a CIS Championship in the 21^st century. In fact, Rachel and Megan are the only two women on the top ten list with times after 1991.

Windsor has to give a lot of credit to these next two girls. Noelle Montcalm (two time National Champion in the 400m Hurdles) would earn four medals and future Olympian Melissa Bishop would tally three gold medals by the end of the meet.

As a Lancer, Noelle's specialty was in the 60m Hurdles. She would win in 8.54, just ahead of Western's Jen Cotten. All eyes during the women's 4x200m that year were on Windsor and Calgary. Windsor had Noelle and Nicole Sassine. Calgary had Amonn Nelson and Kelsey Lotwin. An outstanding lead off leg by Noelle got Nicole Sassine to the cut in well before any other team. Windsor would cruise through the next two exchange zones, handing off to Notoya Whittingham and Danielle Harrison without a problem, holding off Calgary with a time of 1:38.60. Adding to Noelle's medal count, she would claim a silver medal in the 300m behind Amonn Nelson and a bronze in the 60m.

Melissa Bishop would win her first individual CIS medal in the 1000m. With 400m to go Megan Brown was putting the pressure on and had a little gap. Closing the gap quickly Melissa was able to sit and make her winning move just as she was approaching Lancer Corner. Later on in day two she would anchor the 4x800m consisting of Heather Kurpe, Amanda Kanters and Raeleen Hunter to a gold medal. On the final day, the duo of Melissa and Raeleen would line up again for the 600m final. Sitting in third heading into the bell lap, Melissa made her move on the back stretch and held off Celia Peters (Dalhousie) for her third gold medal of the meet.

Jen Cotten, the three time winner and two time returning champ in the women's Pentathlon was back and ready for another epic performance. Scoring huge points in the 60m Hurdles and Long Jump that would have won medals in the individual events, Jen would take another CIS title in the Pentathlon scoring 3947 points. Additionally, she earned another gold medal in the Long Jump with a distance of 5.96m and a silver medal in the 60m Hurdles with a time of 8.55. Jen would also assist the Mustangs to two bronze medals in the 4x200m relay and 4x400m relay. High Jump would be the only competition Jen took part in where she did not earn a medal. Jen's outstanding performance earned her a second Female Athlete of the Meet Award.

The Lancer Women would win their ninth team title and second in a row at home, clear ahead of Toronto and Western who rounded out the top three teams.

Windsor set the CIS point record which they would break the very next year in Sherbrooke.

Final Women Team Standings:
Windsor – 114
Toronto – 73
Western – 63

Records would fall on the men's side of the competition as well.

2009 must have got Saskatchewan's Chris Crossley fired up. The 2009 bronze medalist in the Pentathlon would return and with the top two from the previous year having completed their eligibility, it was his time to shine. Putting in a huge performance, Chris would break Jamie Adjetey-Nelson's Pentathlon record scoring 4126 points. He had solid High Jump and Hurdles performances and his Long Jump (7.33m) would have medaled in the individual event. Windsor's Anthony Dandie would finish second, just edging out Guelph's Jason Diston by 14 points.

On the straight away of day one the attention was on the 2009 60m champion Sam Effah from Calgary. Coming into the competition as the heavy favorite, Sam crushed the competition and CIS history. In the semi-finals Sam would run 6.57 to break Ibrahim Meite's CIS record from 2002. Showing that it was not a onetime deal, Sam would run 6.59 in the finals to claim his third consecutive CIS gold medal in the 60m. Sam would go on to win the 300m on day two, running 33.76 (eighth all-time). He led a future champ in the event, Dontae Richards-Kwok (York) and Jason Kerr (Western) who rounded out the medals.
In the men's Long Jump, Ottawa's Christopher Greenaway dominated the entire field. Other than two foul jumps Chris' shortest jump would have earned him a gold medal by 13cm. On his last jump of the competition Chris would smash the CIS record held by Patrick Banim-Massok. Jumping a distance of 7.88m, Chris' record still stands heading into the 2015 CIS Championships.

The men's distance events would be crucial to the team scores. Only adding to the Windsor and Guelph rivalry, both teams would have ten entries across the four mid distance events and 4x800m relay. Neither team would have an athlete reach the final of the 600m, however, Windsor did salvage one point. Western's Scott Leitch would claim the first of two consecutive 600m gold medals. The 1000m was the chance for Windsor with no Guelph athletes qualifying. A mad kick on the final lap saw Matt Walters (future multiple CIS gold medalist) move on the back stretch, blowing by most of the field to dive at the line and claim his first CIS medal. The 3000m was where Guelph would tally the majority of their points with five athletes entered. The defending Champion Kyle Boorsma (Guelph) would take the event for a second year in a row in a much faster race than 2009. Western's Kyle O'Neil and Windsor's Dave Weston would round out the medals. Even with three different schools being represented on the podium Guelph would walk away from the event with 20 points. In a very hectic 4x800m relay Guelph would run into problems at the second exchange. Windsor would battle it out with Laval, U Vic, U of T and Calgary for the medals. Just missing the podium the Lancers finished fourth while U Vic won their fifth consecutive 4x800m gold medal. With the final day came the 1500m which saw three Lancers go up against three Gryphons. Kyle Boorsma would add a second gold medal to his tally for 2010 running 3:49.53. Queens' Matt Hulse and Guelph's Rob Jackson would complete the podium.

Once again the team title would come down to the 4x400m, this time for the men.

Guelph was sitting in first with 86 points, Windsor second with 79 points and Western just unable to win the competition even with the win in the 4x400m. Windsor was heading into the race ranked first. Guelph needed three points to hold off Windsor. Advantage went to Windsor being in the "fast" second section. Gryphon Head Coach Dave Scott-Thomas recalls standing beside Lancer Head Coach Dennis Fairall during the two heats. Dave cannot recall how many times it has come down to the wire between the two teams and the 4x400m was the deciding event.

In the first section the Gryphons would cross the line last with chances of scoring very slim. The stunner from the first section was Sam Effah throwing down a monster lead off leg for Calgary and helping the Dino's get across the line in 3:18.53. A very quick time that should not be taken lightly in the "fast" section.
Needing a top two finish it would be Western, Windsor and Queens battling it out and switching leads on multiple occasions in the second section. On the final lap Western's Scott Leitch passed Windsor's Chris Reid heading into the final turn resulting in Western winning the second section in 3:18.17 and Windsor coming in second. It would only take seconds for the Lancers time to show on the board, indicating a slower time than Calgary in heat one. Guelph had just barely held on by one point to win their second men's team title.

The Gryphons were toasting Sam Effah that night. Effah was also named Male Athlete of the Meet achieving a CIS record in the 60m, two individual gold medals and a silver medal in the 4x400m.

Final Men Team Standings
Guelph – 86
Windsor – 85
Western - 76

Since 2010, the CIS has seen four different schools win the men's title. Windsor would rebound with a dominating performance in 2011, Western would win their first men's title in 2012, Guelph took the top step in 2013 and York would end a 30 year drought in 2014.

The Windsor women would break their 2010 meet record scoring 154.5 points in 2011 and pulled out the surprise victory in 2012. Calgary's multi eventers would help lead them to their fourth team title in 2013 and the Gryphons would hold off U of T in another 4x400m show down for their second team title in 2014.

Whatever the 2015 Championships bring it will be an exciting event and even if it comes down to the 4x400m the path to that final race of the competition will be unique in its own right. Enjoy the ups and downs, the drama, the upsets, the surprises that a Track and Field competition is guaranteed to provide.
I appreciate the input I received from Dave Scott-Thomas along with the results and top ten list provided by Dennis Fairall and Claude Berube.

I would like to end the series echoing a few comments that former Head Coach of the Western Mustangs, Bob Vigars passed on to me. The University of Windsor is where it is now in the Track and Field world because of the tremendous support and sense of community within the University's faculty that helped build the facility, bring in the best coaches, officiate the competitions and even develop software for results.

Cheers to everyone (coaches, faculty members, officials and athletes) who have been involved in providing the best possible experiences at not only a CIAU/CIS Championship but every Track and Field event hosted at the St. Denis Center or in the outdoor stadium.

Thank you for reading and enjoying the trip down memory lane. Good luck to all the athletes competing this weekend.
Go Lancers.
Richard Johnston, University of Windsor
(BHK, 2012)
 
Acknowledgments: Once again I would like to thank all the coaches and athletes who helped provide results, memories and input for the stories that have been posted the past nine days.