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.

The First One

By Richard Johnston

In 1985 George Orwell's Big Brother was no longer watching, John Hughes brought us the Breakfast Club, Coke bombed with its "New" taste and the CIAU (CIS) Track & Field Championships may have made its unofficial home the University of Windsor. The University was hosting its first ever National Championship in the four year old St. Denis Centre. Lancer Head Coach Michael Salter was in the process of concluding his coaching responsibilities while preparing to become the Dean of Human Kinetics and hiring an individual who would turn Windsor into a Track and Field power house the next three decades.
 
The St. Denis Centre did not look anything like it does today, with a single layer of blue track surface, yellow paint on the walls and at the time I am sure beautiful wooden roll out grand stands.
 
While preparing this story I ran into a speed bump. There seems to be a lack of online resources available from the mid 80's that makes tracking down results and preseason performances difficult. Yes back in the day races were hand timed and results and rankings were snail mailed across the country. Thankfully I was able to get a hold of Paul McCloy who provided me with some memories of the event and Colin Inglis for reaching into the York archives for some results. Claude Berube helped provide the updated All-time Top Ten List.
 
The Championship event was much different than it is today. There was no Pentathlon, no Weight Throw, no women's Pole Vault and instead of the 3,000m the men contested the 5,000m. The point scoring system only scored the top 6 performances instead of the current top 8 performances.
 

Old Scoring System	Placing	Current Scoring system
7	1st	10
5	2nd	8
4	3rd	6
3	4th	5
2	5th	4
1	6th	3
No Points	7th	2
No Points	8th	1

 
The York Lions had already established themselves as a sprinting power house in the CIAU. Setting the CIAU records in 1983 and 1984 they looked to be favorites again with Desai Williams highlighting the men's sprinting events. The Lions ran to a 4x200m relay gold medal in a time of 1:27.52 with Desai Williams and his teammates Richard Hislop, Mike Zunder and Eric Spence. Williams also competed in the 60m and 300m. Desai did not break any of his CIS/CIAU records this year but took home gold medals in both events running 6.78 in the 60m and 33.78 in the 300m.
 
1985 was the second last year the 5,000m was a championship event and it did not disappoint. To put this race in perspective for those who do not know the competitors, Paul McCloy who competed for Memorial University and headlined the field having a sub 14 minute 5,000m at an undersized track (A.U.A.A Championships, now AUS). Three time CIAU Cross Country Champion, Paul represented Canada at multiple World Cross Country and Track and Field Championships placing as high as 8^th in the 1987 XC Championships. Paul would represent Canada at the 1988 Olympics in the 10,000m alongside Carey Nelson who was also contending for the CIAU Indoor 5,000m title. Carey Nelson who was competing for the University of Victoria would later go on to compete in the 1988 and 1996 Olympics along with multiple appearances at the Commonwealth Games. Before lining up at the St. Denis Centre Paul was aware that he has dueled with Carey to many close finishes but confident he can win another CIAU title.
 
Leading most of the race Paul crossed the line in 14.04.13 with Carey Nelson right on his heals running 14.05.20. Paul McCloy would go on to win the final 5,000m CIAU event in Alberta the next year in 13:57.28.
 
While the depth of the men's distance events were very entertaining the show that Molly Killingbeck put on still stands as one of the most outstanding individual performances in CIAU history.
 
Talk of achieving three gold medals in individual events comes up every couple years making the attempt very rare but when it actually takes place everyone knows they have witnessed something impressive. That being said it is usually distance athletes who attempt the triple as the 600m can be a stretch for a sprinter. In this case Molly Killingbeck took home 3 gold medals in the 60m, 300m and 600m. It would take some serious research and time to find out how many times this triple has been attempted let alone winning all three events. While three individual gold medals is impressive it was also the quality of Molly's triple that stands out. All three performances stood on the CIS all-time top 10 until last year when Khamica Bingham set the new 60m record.
 
In the 60m Molly would run 7.47, a CIAU record that would not be broken until 1993. While the 60m win was great Molly must have been feeling confident when she laced up for the event that played to her 400m strength. Representing Canada at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games Molly came home with a silver medal in the 4x400m making her a clear favorite in the 300m. As the star of the field Molly set a CIAU record of 37.78 which still sits number three on the all-time list. I am not diminishing the fields of the 60m and 300m but Molly would be up against her toughest competition in the 600m. The CIS/CIAU record stood at 1:27.63 which was set the year before in Sherbrook. Gwen Wall, was looking to claim gold after finishing third in 1984. Molly however would remain golden running a time that still ranks third all-time 1:28.22. It was an exciting race that saw Gwen Wall finish second with a time of 1:29.85.
 
The defending women's team champions wanted to repeat their 1984 win and Molly helped the Lions run to a gold medal in the 4x200m (1:39.81) and silver medal in the 4x400m (3:47.77). Even with 33 points attached to her name the team battle for gold ended with Alberta and Saskatchewan in a tie with 42 points (the lowest winning team scores in CIS/CIAU history).
 
Now we can start making our way back to the future with the next stop being 1991, anyone have a DeLorean?