Daniel Rependa
Staff Writer
@excalweb
From March 8 to 10, the University of Manitoba held the track and field CIS championships. York’s men’s team finished the meet in fourth place and the women’s team finished in eighth place. One of the biggest highlights was Dontae Richards-Kwok receiving the award for the most outstanding male athlete in the CIS championships. The last time a York athlete accomplished the feat was in 1992. Richards-Kwok won gold in the 300 and 60-metre sprint, coming second in the 4×200-metre relay.
The York men finished with 72 points, which was just behind the University of Windsor by only a point and a half. From there, Guelph and Western ran the event with 77 and 90 points. The women finished just below the University of Alberta with 35 points.
Other major award winners include Kristin Obrochta and Cynthia Appiah claiming first and second in the women’s weight throw. Daniel Novia won gold in men’s weight throw. York’s 4×800-metre relay team broke a 22-year-old school record with a time of 7:39.53.
Even though York did very well at the CIS championships, something even more impressive was the general dominance by Ontario teams. In both the women’s and the men’s divisions, the top four teams were all Ontario teams. In the men’s divisions these teams were Western, Guelph, Windsor, and York. In the women’s division these teams were Windsor, Guelph, Western, and Toronto.
The interesting thing about this Ontario dominance isn’t even that Ontario swept the championships this year. Ontario dominance of track and field in the CIS championships has been a prevailing theme for the past seven years.
Whatever the case may be, York finished in a great place with both the men’s and women’s team. On top of this, they finished beside some of their closest rivals. Overall, it was a great track meet not only for York, but Ontario in general.
