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.

Lancer Distance Shines

By Richard Johnston

Returning to its place of ancient origin, the Olympic Games were held in Athens, Greece. Green Day came out with American Idiot, long time running show Friends concluded its final season and while you may wish you were stuck in second year you can count on CIS Track and Field to be there for you.
Another year in Windsor and it seems like almost all the big names from 2003 were back for another round. Jessica Zelinka, Adrienne Power, Megan Reid, Ibriham Meiti, Patrick Benim-Mossock and Ryan McKenzie would all be competing in 2004. As usual, there would be some new faces who looked to make a name for themselves and mix it up a bit.

Both the Windsor men and Saskatchewan women were coming into the Championships ranked first with very loaded teams and hoped to repeat their performances from 2003.

On day one the CIS record holder Jessica Zelinka (future Olympian) was back to defend her 2003 title. To no surprise Jessica would dominate the competition and earn her third CIS Pentathlon title along with another CIS record. Reaching a huge milestone Jessica would crack the 4000 point barrier with 4062 points, almost 200 points ahead of the silver medalist Samantha Anderson who was also from the University of Calgary.

In the men's Pentathlon a Windsor rookie would come in and control the competition right from the start. Jamie Adjetey-Nelson would break the CIS record that was set in 2003, scoring 3902 points. In 2003 Jamie would have been spotted raking the Long Jump pit and enjoying the competition as high school volunteer. Who knew a year later he would come in and take one of the most grueling competitions in the CIS while setting a new meet record.

The Pentathlon would not be the only event Jessica and Jamie would be competing in. Jessica earned a silver medal in the 60m running 7.56 behind future Olympian Adrienne Power from Dalhousie. On day two, both Jessica and Jamie would compete in the 60m hurdles final. Jessica would earn another gold medal crossing the line in a time of 8.32 before a pair of Lancer women, Stephanie Wenner and Melanie Lachapelle, who rounded out the medals. Following a trend, both athletes would compete in the Long Jump as well. Jessica posted her best distance of 5.74 on her last jump. She would finish with the bronze medal. Jamie would also earn a bronze medal in his last jump with a distance of 7.32m, surpassing his teammate Osi Nriagu. Jamie was also a member of both Lancer 4x200m and 4x400m teams. The Lancers would place fourth in the 4x400m relay making Jamie's first CIS Championship a busy one competing in 10 events over the course of three days.

Jessica would earn her third CIS Female Athlete of the Meet based on her performances in 2004. While Jessica would continue to thrive in CIS competition, earning a fourth CIS Female Athlete of the Meet award in 2007 for breaking her Pentathlon record again with 4380 points. Jessica says she will never forget how energetic the St. Denis Center would be during every event and the excitement the propelled all of the athletes to perform better.

In the field events, Patrick Benim-Mossock (Université du Québec à Montréal) would repeat his performance from 2003 and take home the gold medal for the Long Jump and Triple Jump. Unfortunately, his CIS records went untouched. Kelsie Hendry (Saskatchewan) would also defend her title breaking her former CIS record by 5cm, vaulting 4.20m.
The Lethbridge throwers would dominate once again. Jim Steacy was ranked 10th n the world for Weight Throw at the time and his competition didn't get anywhere near his new CIS record (21.46m), breaking the one he set previously in his rookie season. While Jim would get the silver medal in the Shot Put throwing 16.65m, his teammate Chris Meisner would win the competition with a record breaking throw of 18.46m. Chris' throw sits number two on the all-time top ten list. With the results of only two events, the Lethbridge men would earn the bronze medal with 32 points in the team competition.

In the women's throws it would be Kate Forbes from Lethbridge taking both the Weight Throw and Shot Put. Kate's distance in the Weight throw set a new CIS record of 18.99m, erasing her old mark of 17.44m. In 2005, Kate would break it again with the current CIS record of 19.66m. While she took home gold in both throwing events in 2003, Megan Reid (Saskatchewan) would have to settle for two silver medals.

On the track, Adrienne Power and Ibriham Meiti would each take home two individual gold medals winning the 60m and 300m sprints. Like I said at the start of this article, a lot of the 2003 Champions were back again and still heavily favored.

On the men's distance side the Lancers would put on a show. One of the greatest middle distance runners in CIS history was back for his final year and Ryan McKenzie wanted to complete what he narrowly missed in 2003. Entered in three individual events and the 4x800m, once again Ryan's goal was to win and win big. Making it through the 600m semi-finals running 1:19.95, Ryan would end up claiming the gold medal on the final day of competition with a time of 1:19.3. Day two was something special though, competing in the 1000m and 4x800m. The 1000m was up first. With the 600m heats in his legs and the 4x800m, 600m final and 1500m to come over the next two days it was somewhat surprising to see Ryan taking the lead from the gun and flying around the track, opening in 27 seconds. Controlling the entire race by the time the bell lap came, Ryan was clear ahead of the field, crossing the line in 2:23.10 (only .02 off the CIS record). Next up for Ryan would be the 4x800m relay. Coming in ranked second in the 4x800m, Dennis Fairall took a gamble holding out a few of the Lancers veteran 800m runners and replacing them with two freshmen, Andrew Coates (2008 CIS 3000m Champion) and Kevin Savard. They would take the first two legs of the relay, with Trevor Pye and Ryan McKenzie closing. The University of Victoria was ranked first with an experienced squad with fresh legs. All Windsor had to do was keep Victoria within site for McKenzie to throw down on the final leg. Coates, Savard and Pye did their job getting Ryan the baton within two seconds of Victoria.  With 200m to go McKenzie would take the lead and take off from the University of Victoria. Winning in 7:36.7 the Lancers performed well with a young team anchored by one of the best in the country. After the 600m final the 1500m was all that was left to finish off the individual triple. As top seed of 3:44.64 run on the same track earlier that year Ryan would cruise to the rarely achieved triple gold medal performance in individual events. Finishing with a time of 3:52.38 Ryan had earned the four gold medals and the Male Athlete of the Meet.

The distance domination wasn't held to the events Ryan McKenzie competed in. In the men's 3000m there was a great race run by the 2004 CIS Cross Country Champion Eric Gillis (St.Francis Xavier) and Windsor's Brandon Young. Gillis is currently one of Canada's top Marathoners and has represented Canada at two Olympic Games. Soon after the 2004 CIS Track and Field Championships, Gillis would leave to compete at the World Cross Country Championships while the three Lancer athletes lining up were heading off to the World University Cross Country Championships, making this a very strong field. Taking the race out in 31 seconds and creating a gap from the rest field, Gillis pressed the pace for the entire race with Brandon sitting on his outside shoulder. Knowing he had a much faster kick, Brandon bided his time until the final lap and then threw down the hammer. The St. Denis Center would erupt with Brandon celebrating down the straight away. It was a great moment for an athlete who didn't even make the provincial squad his first year competing for the Lancers.

In the team battle, the Saskatchewan women dominated again. Even with Zelinka earning 29 points the Calgary Dinos would have to settle for silver again. Saskatchewan set a women's record for points scored by the winning team with 91.5 points. Let me remind you this was done with the old 6 deep scoring system.

Women's Final Team Standings
Saskatchewan – 91.5
Calgary – 57
Dalhousie – 36

On the strength of six gold medals the Windsor Lancers would defend their 2003 title and add their fifth team banner to the rafters bringing Coach Fairall's total to ten Track and Field Championships.

Men's Final Team Standings
Windsor – 59
Sherbrooke – 42
Lethbridge - 32

Moving ahead, Windsor would not host again for another five years. During that time there would be another major change to the CIS competition. With the depth of the CIS greatly growing the introduction of the new scoring system would be put in place in 2007.
 

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

 
Now you stay classy CIS fans.
 
Thank you to Dennis Fairall for providing results and to Jessica Zelinka and Gary Malloy for providing some input and great memories.