Case wins close in-house sprinting battle at York University Open
Jefferson Hagen / MacEwan Athletics
TORONTO – Nikita Case won the first round of MacEwan's intriguing in-house sprinting battle at the York University Open on Saturday.
But it really couldn't have been any closer.
Case, who holds the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference record with a run of 41.55 seconds in the women's 300 metres last year, finished Saturday's race in 42.36, good for 27th overall in a field full of U SPORTS runners.
Teammate Amanda Ntiamoah, who previously held the ACAC record, finished 28th in 42.57, while MacEwan's Valerie Schlottke was 29th in 42.66. Unattached Ontario runner Micha Powell won in 39.51, while Guelph's Jenna Smith was the top university competitor at 39.91.
"All three girls, I wouldn't have said they had the best start," said Carver. "Nikita, this is her first 300 she's running this year, so you can tell the timing was a little bit off. The gun went and she almost popped straight up, she didn't drive out of the blocks.
"Amanda looked like when she took her first strides she went right to the inside of the track," he added of the challenge the athletes faced on York's banked oval. "Once Nikita got upright and was in full stride, she ran beautifully down the track. Out of the four girls in the heat, Nikita won it and Amanda was really close. They looked good. I was very pleased with that."
Case got the win by just a half stride, while Schlottke – who was held out of the MacEwan University Invitational last month after pulling a muscle in warm-ups – appeared to aggravate that injury right before the finish line.
"The last five metres, you could see one stride where all of a sudden her leg looked a little bit funny and she felt that little twinge in the back," said Carver.
The trio later teamed up with Hannah Leggatt for the women's 4x400 relay where Schlottke was instructed dial it back due to the muscle tweak. She ran about 4-5 seconds slower than she was capable of and the Griffins still finished in 4:05.00, less than two seconds off their own ACAC record (4:03.25).
"Both Amanda and Nikita ran about 59 seconds for splits and Hannah ran close to 60 seconds," said Carver. "With Valerie floating in at about a 64-high, that put us at 4:05. So, if Valerie was 100 per cent, we'd have had that.
"But I'm glad to see we didn't have to carry her off the track."
Case ran a particularly impressive relay leg. As she took the baton for the finishing kick, MacEwan trailed Waterloo by more than 20 metres. She made up that ground, passing the Warriors' anchor runner on the second 200-metre lap and won by almost five seconds.
"Being that she's an experienced middle-distance runner, she didn't do what a lot of kids do and close the ground right away in the first lap," said Carver. "She ran perfectly and took her on the second lap."
The MacEwan men's 4x400 relay team was just a shade slower than they were at their own event a week previous where they set the school record with a run of 3:40.30. This time, the Griffins foursome of Thomas Cross-Trush, Reece Runco, Colin Walker and Scott Kohlman came in at 3:41.17. But they had clean exchanges and beat both U SPORTS teams they went against (Brock and Western).
"They did a whole bunch of things right in the fact that their exchanges were much better than they were at our meet," said Carver. "There's still some room for improvement there. That was also having Scott come right off the 1500 with about 40 minutes rest and then he stepped up and ran the 4x400."
Kohlman was 22nd in the men's 1500 in 4:16.71, just back of winner Isaiah Frielink of Western (3:57.51).
In the men's 300 metres, Cross-Trush finished 12th in 36.21, just shy of his own ACAC record (35.99), while Runco (32nd in 37.44) and Walker (57th in 39.20) rounded out the Griffins' finishers behind winner Daniel Harper of Brampton T.C. (33.87) and top university finisher Ramzi Abdulahi of Western (34.30).
Leggatt ran the women's 600 metres in 1:38.30, giving her a solid seed time for next month's ACAC Championship. That was good for sixth place behind winner Sonia Gaskin of York (1:30.58).
The Griffins will next enter their middle-distance runners in the University of Alberta's Pandas Open, set for Feb. 9-11 (Butterdome).
The ACAC Championship, hosted by MacEwan, is set for March 9-10 (Kinsmen Field House).
