Lancers men's and women's track and field gear up for CIS
By Tanya Quaglia
Lance Writer
March 10, 2010
After a successful season so far, the Windsor Lancers track and field team are hard at work preparing for the upcoming CIS championship.
The championship will be held in Windsor this coming weekend and the Lancers hope to take both the men and women’s national team titles.
The Lancers recently captured two provincial titles at the OUA track and field championship.
It was the 12th straight title for the men’s team.
The long training season paid off for the Lancers and head coach Dennis Fairall is pleased with the team’s performance thus far.
“The Lancer track and field team worked extremely hard to achieve the goal of two provincial titles. The team started training last September with their first competition not until mid January. This was preceded with a two a day training at a self-funded training camp in Puerto Rico in early January,” said Fairall.
“It was very rewarding to see that the hard work paid off and we brought home two provincial banners.”
The Lancers coaching staff were recently recognized for their hard work and dedication.
Fairall was named OUA coach of the year, as voted on by his peers.
“It's a great honour that our staff was named as the OUA coach of the year. The award means a great deal as it is selected by your peers and it is good to know that they recognize the efforts put forth by our coaches,” said Fairall, who said that the award is shared between him and his 11 “outstanding” assistant coaches.
Fairall captured the Bob Vigars award as the province's best men's coach for the 18th time in his career, winning the Sue Wise award for best women's coach for the 15th time.
In addition to the coach of the year honours, two Lancers, Noelle Montcalm and Mike Miller, were named MVP.
The Lancers will be looking for strong team play to take home the national titles.
“The men captured the OUA title with just two gold medals (Shot Put and 4x800m relay) so the team title was a total team effort. While the women won more gold medals both teams captured the team titles as a result of great balance as we scored in 32 of 34 events,” states Fairall.
“We must duplicate the performances of last weekend and get a little help from our friends. If we perform up to our capabilities the women will be tough to beat at home and the men should be challenging for the overall CIS Team title as well.”
Windsor will play host the championships at the St. Denis Center.
The track and field team hopes to win it all in front of their home crowd.
“We are far more comfortable at home and compete well in front of our home and very supportive crowd. We are really looking forward to the national finals in the St. Denis Centre,” said Fairall.
The Lancers have had strong performances all year and have proven they are a team to watch out for.
Once again, they are threats for the national titles, which they hope to defend.
The championships will take place from Mar. 11-13 at the St. Denis Centre. |
