Track and field heads to Montreal

Queen’s takes a smaller-than-usual squad to national championships

Queen’s track and field team heads into the national championships this weekend at McGill University

in Montreal ready to face their toughest competition so far this season. Here, we profile three of the team’s medal hopefuls.

Braden Novakowski

Braden Novakowski qualified for the 1,500-metre and will also be taking part in the 4×800-metre

relay. Novakowski had a late start to the season after missing the first two meets with an injury.

“[The season] was a roller coaster,” he said. “I’m happy where I am right now. I started the season

a little late and I haven’t had the chance to do the number of races I wanted, but I’m still content about where I am right now.” Novakowski finished fifth in the 1,500-metre race at the provincial championships two weeks ago but he’s cautious going into the national championships. He’s ranked sixth in the country in the event. “In the 1,500, I’m just going to play it by ear. I’m going to run as fast as I can. There are a lot of good guys with fast times.” He said he’s more confident about his relay team’s chances. “The 4×800 is a riot,” he said. “Everyone gets excited and, if we have a good race, we could be in the hunt for a medal.”

He said he knows it will be hard but he’s excited for the weekend. “I can’t wait. “It’s nice that it’s

so close [in Montreal]. We race at McGill so much that you can relax and visualize because you’ve been there. … Everything is falling into place and I hope it keeps going the way it is.”

Dupe Oyewumi

Sprinter Dupe Oyewumi has been tearing up the track this year, and is showing no signs of slowing down. Oyewumi will be running in both the 60-metre sprint and the 4×200-metre relay. Oyewumi had a magnificent season, breaking an all-time Queen’s record in the process.

“My season went extremely well. I ran a sub 8-second, I broke the Queen’s record [in the 60-metre], I set a new personal best and automatically qualified for the nationals,” Oyewumi said. Oyewumi posted a time of 7.79 seconds at the provincial championships, setting a Queen’s school record and her own personal best in addition to winning the silver medal.

She has high hopes for nationals as well. “I hope for both my individual and group races that we get some seasonal bests,” she said. “You hope to improve all season and want to perform your best at the

national championships.” She said she feels both excited and prepared for the weekend’s races.

“I am extremely excited and I can’t wait to go. … Our sprint coach Wayne [Bulak] has been getting us ready. … We’re bringing our ‘A’ game this week.”

Women’s 4×400 relay

The women’s 4×400-metre relay team consists of Laura Andrighetti, Angela King, Calla Humphries and Joanna Stanisz. They look to make an impact in their relay, which is the last event of the meet on the weekend.

“We had a pretty good season,” Andrighetti said. Andrighetti posted a personal best 61.6 seconds in her leg of the 4×400-metre at the provincial championships. “We want to improve on our season best time and move up in place,” she said. The team is looking to improve on its season so far and hopes to run some individual personal bests and a team seasonal best. “There are a lot of good girls,” Stanisz said. “We have a lot of depth but we’re looking forward to running against some good competition.” Stanisz will also run in the 4×200-metre relay. Both Andrighetti and Staniscz agreed the team is ready to take on tough competition. “We’ve been preparing all season,” Andrighetti said.

“Nationals is the best meet of the year; you are surrounded by so many top quality athletes and it

drives you to be at your best.” Staniscz added, “Our whole season leads up to this; it’s provincials then nationals.

“This is my last year and I’m really glad to end it off on a good note. I’m excited to run and finish off [my career].”

All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s)-in-Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be contacted, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to journal_editors@ams.queensu.ca.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Skip to content