Sports teams’ schedules Bisons finish strong at Jim Daly Classic

The herd dominates two-day meet

Quinn Mayhew, staff

The herd hosted the Jim Daly Bison Classic this Feb. 3 and 4 at Max Bell Centre.

As a whole, the meet was very successful. Many Bison athletes earned new season bests or personal bests.

The meet started on Friday with the Bison relays absolutely dominating this yearly track classic, which included the 4x200 metre. The women had the third fastest time for the 4x200 in the Canada West Conference (CanWest).

Saturday afternoon was a chance for the track and field team to improve its standings, and to earn personal bests on home turf. With the Bisons hosting this meet, the herd was looking for podium finishes on home soil.

With both the men and women ranking in the top ten in the U-Sports rankings, the expectations continue to mount going into the upcoming Canada West Championships at the end of February.

The men are currently ranked second in the U-Sports standings, with 65.5 points and the women are ranked ninth with 27 points, just one point shy of the Dalhousie University Tigers who are currently in eighth place.

Rachel Mann, who competed in the 60-metre hurdles for the U of M, said, “the team as a whole did really well, pretty much everyone had a season’s best or personal best.”

Indeed, going forward the team has all the momentum it needs to continue to climb the U-Sports rankings.

As the end of the track and field season fast approaches, the team looks fierce in both the individual and group races.

When it comes to shot put there’s none better than Anna McConnell, who has reached and even out-performed the national standard, frequently throwing over 14 metres, with an outstanding 14.44 metre best.

Overall, the track and field team continued to impress with Chioma Nwagbo ranked tenth in U-Sports and fourth in the CanWest Conference for the Women’s 600 metre race.

Mann went on to add, “our relays, we have a really strong pool, and we have pretty much in every event, we should have one or two people in finals.”

With the U of M men’s team currently sitting third in the U-Sports rankings for the 4x200 men’s relay, as well as the women currently sitting in ninth place in the U-Sports 4x200 metre standings, it’s safe to say expectations will be high for both the men’s and women’s teams in this much-anticipated event.

Another notable duo from this year’s track and field roster is Dawson Mann and Tristan Allen, who currently rank fourth and fifth for the men’s 600 metre race, boasting individual times of 1:18.25 for Mann and 1:18.47 for Allen.

With the U of M working hard to dominate both track and field events, the herd is set for a blazing finish to this track and field season as it ends.

Sports fans can continue to cheer on the herd as the track and field team looks forward to the CanWest Championships on Feb. 24 and 25 in Saskatchewan.

The herd will try to improve their rankings this week at the South Dakota State University Invitational from Feb. 10 to 11.