Recap by: Kirk Jessome
(Halifax, NS) – As the final tune-up before the AUS championships, track and field athletes once again attempted to put down some fast times on the track at the SMU Open hosted at the Canada Games Centre.
Getting things started in the jumps was Logan Coulet of Acadia with a 1.95m high jump which puts him in the hunt for national qualifying. In the pits Audley Cummings improved his season best in long jump to 6.75m which puts him in contention to qualify for nationals, even as a multi-eventer.
For the women, Victoria Leblanc greatly improved on her season best in long jump with a mark of 5.37m which puts her in the top 15 nationally, with Madison Nastasiuk finishing close behind her with a season best of 5.29m.
In triple jump Hayley Wilson from StFX improved on her top 10 national ranking with a one cm improvement of 11.49m.
On the track, the Tigers lit it up.
Matthew Coolen ran the first sub-7 time in the 60m from the AUS this season with a time of 6.97. That time was good enough to tie him for a fifth place rank in the country. Before that performance, Coolen dropped a time of 8.53 in the 60mH, which puts him in the top 15 in a second event.
On the women's side, Maya Reynolds moved up once again in the 60m national rankings with a time of 7.62 to move her into fifth place. Finishing behind her was Bailey Smith of UPEI with a big season best of 7.73 to put her in the mix to qualify for nationals in the event with a top 15 ranking.
The meet marked the last chance to improve rankings, or auto-qualify for U Sports nationals before the AUS conference championship meet that will take place in Moncton, February 23rd-24th.
The Tigers will look to claim their fourth straight AUS banner on the men's side, and the 28th straight title for the women's team.