The St. Thomas track team traveled to Saint John for the Red and Black Open on Saturday, November 23rd for their first competition of the 2019-2020 season. A mix of sprinters, middle distance runners, and long distance runners made the trip to check out the new Irving Oil Field House where the Atlantic University Sport Track and Field Championships will be hosted in February.
In the women's sprint events, team captain Grace Baker qualified for the 60M finals (8.66) and finished third in the 20-34 age category (8.77). First year Grace Beaulieu ran the 300M, finishing third in the 18-19 age category (53.69).
The 600M saw Jensen Elliot finishing first in the 20-34 age category (2:03.89), followed by Jessica Kenny in second for a personal best (2:16.66). Grace Beaulieu was the first finisher in the 18-19 age category for the 800M (3:13.79), while Jessica Kenny was the second finisher in the 20-34 age category for the 1000M (4:07.20) in another personal best time.
The men's sprinters saw great results, with freshman Kirklin Robichaud running a new school record in the 60M qualifying heat (7.53) to finish second overall in the 18-19 age category in a time of 7.54. Patrice Cammarano qualified with a time of 8.66 to finish in 5th (8.86). Tristan Sutherland was incredibly consistent, setting a new personal best of 7.75 to qualify and then running that time in the finals to finish 6th in the 20-34 age category. In the 300M, Robichaud ran a personal best time of 38.67 to finish first in the 18-19 age category. Sutherland was the third finisher in the 20-34 age category with a second personal best on the day (40.63), taking over half a second off his previous time.
In the middle and long distance men's events, Cammarano was the second finisher in the 18-19 age category for the 600M with a personal best time of 1:44.76. The 1500M saw three men taking part, with first year Tristan Eisnor running 5:19.07 for second in the 18-19 age category, while Lars Schwarz finished first (4:25.76) followed by team captain Ryan Terry (4:28.63) for second place in the 20-34 category. Eisnor finished second in the 18-19 category of the 3000M (12:05.72) and Schwarz was first in the 20-34 age category in a time of 9:43.24.
STU track will next be competing in 2020 at the Saint John Open on January 18th.