GOLDEN BEARS AND PANDAS WELCOME TOP TRACK ATHLETES
University of Alberta track and field is hitting the home stretch of the 2016-17 season in more ways than one.
With the national championships set to hit the Universiade Pavilion Thursday to Saturday, the Golden Bears and Pandas will host the elite of U Sports.
It’s provided the backdrop for the entire season – one that saw the Pandas repeat as Canada West Conference champions for the first time in school history, while the Bears are coming off a conference silver medal – and, while they wanted to avoid getting caught looking too far ahead, now it’s finally here.
“It’s been very much a year of, ‘Take the next thing that’s in front of you,’” program head coach Wes Moerman said. “Now it’s here and we’re ready to take on that next thing that’s right in front of us.”
Despite earning the conference banner, the fifth-seed Pandas enter nationals two points behind the University of Calgary.
“The girls did awesome, they really performed well above our projections by walking into that competition being ranked second and walking out with a clear victory,” Moerman said of the conference championships, where the Pandas earned backto-back titles despite a significant amount of turnover. “It’s a real credit to the effort that the girls have been putting in and it was a big display of just how far the team has come.”
And not just the Pandas, either, as the Bears head into championship weekend ranked 10th nationally.
“Just the other day, I printed off an entry form and there were nine athletes and one relay team in 2014 at nationals,” Moerman said. “This year, we’re 33 athletes and six relay teams. There are very few other schools that have fielded six relay teams.
“The other exciting thing about Canada West is, it’s not a formal scoring, but if you combine the point total of our men and women, it was one of the best performances of recent years of any school in Canada West.”
But this week ushers in all the heavy hitters from outside the conference that the Bears and Pandas don’t often see.
“Last year, we took home the prize of being the best Canada West team at nationals and we hope to do that again this year,” Moerman said. “I think one of the things that the Ontario conference gets is just the population it’s able to draw on, but also the availability of competition at reasonable prices.
“At a certain level, basically you’ve got to fund raise and fly.”
Of course, there are other advantages to having the national championships in your own back yard.
“When I found out we were hosting, I was super excited. My whole family is coming up,” said fifth-year pole-vaulter Paige Ridout, who spent her first three seasons competing with the University of Calgary Dinos. “I’m getting a good crowd out and we’re definitely going to have the home-court advantage with the energy.
“Especially for pole vault. It’s super technical and you cue off on where the mats are placed and how high the roof is. It sounds funny, but obviously I practise in the Butterdome every day.”
In her final season of eligibility where she’s already set a school record, Ridout has one last kick at the proverbial can to improve upon last year’s national silver medal.
It came in a his-and-hers set, it turns out, with Bears pole-vaulter Spencer Allen also earning silver as a U Sports rookie last season.
And while both have been perennial competitors at national championships, unlike team sports where the host squad is assured entry, track and field athletes have to qualify individually regardless of where the finals are held.
“There’s three ways to qualify for (nationals): You can either achieve a qualifying standard, you can claim top one or two at the conference championships or be in the Top 12 in the U Sports rankings,” said Allen, who achieved the qualifying standard of 4.84 m early in the season on the way to winning Canada West championships and has a personal best of 5.09 m. “I hit all three, actually.” Bear tracks: Pandas outside hitter Meg Casault was named Canada West player of the year after setting a conference record 1,321 career kills. At the same time, Pandas volleyball’s Laurie Eisler was named Canada West coach of the year on the strength of a 22-2 record. The Pandas host the Canada West Final Four Friday (6:30 p.m. vs. UBC Okanagan) and Saturday (bronze at 5 p.m., gold at 6:30 p.m.) at the Saville Community Sports Centre ... No. 4 seed Bears basketball opens nationals against Halifax hosts Dalhousie University at 5 p.m. Thursday ... Bears volleyball opens Canada West Final Four at the University of Manitoba against the Trinity Western University Spartans at 7 p.m. Friday.
When I found out we were hosting, I was super excited. My whole family is coming up.