TORONTO, ON - An impressive 2015-16 season for the Gryphons Track & Field teams was capped off on Saturday with both the men's and women's teams earning second place finishes in the overall team standings at the 2016 CIS Championships. The Gryphons remained in contention for a national title up until the final event on the women's side, and the second last event on the men's side, but ultimately, it was the Windsor Lancers men's team and the Toronto Varsity Blues women's team who both repeated as national champions.

From a Gryphons standpoint, Day 3 of the CIS Track & Field Championships was highlighted by a Silver medal performance from Katelyn Ayers in the Women's 1500m. It marked the second medal of the Championships for Ayers who also claimed a Bronze the previous day in the Women's 1000m. The Gryphons also reached the podium on three separate occasions on Saturday to claim Bronze. Tommy Land finished third in the Men's 600m with a time of 1:19.17 while High Jumper Maja Naruszewicz took home a Bronze from nationals with a personal best clearance of 1.70m. Rounding out the Gryphons medalists on Saturday was the all-rookie squad of Katie Sieling, Hailey Hitchings, Tiana Sinnatamby & Nicole Smith, who captured a Bronze in the Women's 4x200m Relay with a school record time of 1:39.10.

Over the course of the three day event, the Gryphons reached the podium a total of 13 times (2 Gold, 3 Silver, 8 Bronze). Every Gryphon who reached the podium has eligibility remaining for the 2016-17 season.

For more information on the 2016 CIS Track & Field Championships, visit www.cis-sic.ca RESULTS CHAMPIONSHIP WEBSITE CHAMPIONSHIP AWARDS   Women Outstanding athlete of the meet: Gabriela Stafford, Toronto TIMEX coach of the year (Sue Wise Award): Carl Georgevski, Toronto   Men Outstanding athlete of the meet (George Gemer Award): Corey Bellemore, Windsor TIMEX coach of the year (Bob Boucher Award): Brett Lumley, Windsor   FINAL TEAM STANDINGS Women 1) Toronto, 99 points       2) Guelph,85   3) Western, 75.50     4) Alberta, 55   5) York, 48        6) Sherbrooke, 40   7) Saskatchewan, 37        8) Trinity Western, 35.50 9) Calgary, 34       10) Windsor, 32   11) Dalhousie, 20       12) Lethbridge, 18   13) McGill, 13        14) Laval, 12   14) Manitoba,12       16) Waterloo, 11   17) Ottawa, 10       17) Victoria, 10   19) New Brunswick, 8      20) Regina, 5   21) ST FX, 3  Men 1) Windsor, 93        2) Guelph, 79.50 3) Toronto, 56       4) York, 55   5) Laval, 53        6) Saskatchewan, 51   7) Western, 46        8) Dalhousie, 28   9) Regina, 26       10) Lethbridge, 23   11) Alberta, 22       12) Manitoba, 21   13) Victoria, 20       14) Sherbrooke, 18   14) Montréal, 18       16) Trinity Western, 17   17) McGill, 8       18) Ottawa, 5.50 19) Calgary, 4       19) Waterloo, 4   21) Laurier, 3       21) McMaster, 3   

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  Gryphon Medalists at 2016 CIS T&F Championships
Day 1

BRONZE
Kyle Thompson, Men's 60m

Day 2

GOLD
Jared Skeath, Men's Weight Throw
Sean Cate, Men's High Jump

SILVER
Sarah Hammond, Women's 60m Hurdles
Ashley Connell, Women's Shot Put

BRONZE
Jackson Cheung, Men's 60m Hurdles
Katelyn Ayers, Women's 1000m
Katrina Allison, Women's 3000m
Emily Gordon, Cheryse Mitton, Janelle Hanna & Sophia Watts, Women's 4x800m

Day 3

SILVER
Katelyn Ayers – Women's 1500m
 
BRONZE
Maja Naruszewicz – Women's High Jump
Tommy Land – Men's 600m
Katie Sieling, Hailey Hitchings, Tiana Sinnatamby & Nicole Smith – Women's 4x200m Relay
 

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Gryphons MEN'S: National Champions 
2012-13
2009-10
2007-08
1957-58

Gryphons WOMEN'S: National Champions 
2013-14
2007-08
 

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CIS TEAM CHAMPIONS (last 10 years)
 
Women
2015-16 Toronto
2014-15 Toronto
2013-14 Guelph
2012-13 Calgary
2011-12 Windsor
2010-11 Windsor
2009-10 Windsor
2008-09 Windsor
2007-08 Guelph
2006-07 Calgary

Men
2015-16 Windsor
2014-15 Windsor
2013-14 York
2012-13 Guelph
2011-12 Western
2010-11 Windsor
2009-10 Guelph
2008-09 Windsor
2007-08 Guelph
2006-07 Sherbrooke

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OVERALL GRYPHON SUMMARY

With 34 events spread over three days, the CIS Track and Field Championships are always roller coaster of emotions for athletes, coaches and fans. The 2016 Championships were that and much more for the Guelph Gryphons. Over the course of the three days, Gryphon athletes set several new school records, collected 14 medals, were locked in a pair of tight team battles and, in the end, went home with a pair of team silver medals.

The Championships, hosted by York University, started Thursday with the multi-events, 60 metres, 600 and 4 x 200 metre heats and the women's weight throw. Senior captain Sarah Dougherty got the Gryphons off to a strong start in the women's weight throw leading a fourth and seventh place finish in the event.  In the men's 60 metres Kyle Thompson ran the second best time in school history clocking a 6.78 to narrowly miss Chinedu Amadi's school record of 6.77. Thompson won the bronze medal for his efforts. In the women's pentathlon Bailey Penny, who entered the meet ranked 12th, came through with a huge sixth place finish. Thursday also saw the Gryphons send Olivia Romaniw and Tommy Land through to the 600 metre finals, while the Gryphon 4 x 200 metre relay for women also advanced to the final. The Thursday night competition ended on a highly controversy note for the Gryphons as a school record time in the men's 4x200 metres was overturned by a disqualification. The disqualification was appealed but the ruling on the field stood. A number of dropped batons and injuries led to only six teams officially finishing the event.

Day two started with a massive high for the Gryphons as Jared Skeath smashed his school record in the men's weight throw with 20.53 metres toss to defend his CIS title. Remarkably Skeath won the competition by more than two metres. The next final was on the track, the women's 1000 metres, Katelyn Ayers grabbed the bronze medal with an outstanding run in a field where the gold medalist broke the CIS record and the silver medalist narrowly missed it. In the men's 1000 metre, Tommy Land went from ninth to fifth in the final 100 metres to bring home crucial team points. One of the highlight events of the meet was next for the Gryphons as Sarah Hammond, who entered the meet ranked seventh, grabbed the silver medal in the 60 hurdles, breaking the school record she set in the heats with an incredible 8.44 clocking, teammate Hailey Hitchings finished an outstanding sixth.  The men's hurdles followed on the track and the Gryphons appeared to have another massive point haul as Jackson Cheung grabbed the bronze and Taylor Corney came through in a shocking fourth. Unfortunately Corney's run was not to be, as the officials ruled that he had not fully cleared all of the hurdles leading to another disqualification. Cheung's medal was the first for a Gryphon male hurdler since Cody Sorensen.  As the action shifted back to the oval the Gryphons brought home another medal as Katrina Allison came through with a bronze in the women's 3000 metres. In the men's race the Gryphons saw strong runs from Brayden Seneca (fifth) and Connor Black (seventh). Back in the field, Sean Cate was doing what Sean Cate does best winning high jump competitions. After a small bobble at 2.07, Cate cleared 2.10 and 2.13 to win the competition, he went on to clear 2.16 and take a number of strong attempts at 2.20. His teammates Mitch Torres (sixth) and Eric Chatten (seventh) also contributed points to the Gryphons' quest. Also in the field the Gryphons picked up single points in men's long jump (Taylor Corney) and women's pole vault (Samantha Allegro). Following the jumps the focus returned to the oval, with the gruelling men's heptathlon came to an end with the men's 1000 metres. Shawn Beaudoin dominated the field in the final event of the seven event heptathlon, pushing himself to a fourth place finish, teammate Mark Emode was close behind in fifth.   In the men's 300 metres, Brandon Shirk inched ever closer to Tim Robinson's long-standing school record with a 34.55 clocking to finish seventh.   With only the relays remaining the attention shifted to the field for the women's shot put.  Guelph's Ashley Connell had been sitting in the silver medal position heading into round five, when Sarah Mitton from Windsor moved passed her for the silver.  Connell was the next athlete into the circle and respondent emphatically living up to her nickname of "Smash" as she crushed a 15.60 throw to secure the silver medal.  Teammate Sarah Dougherty came through with her second fourth place finish of the meet with a 14.01 throw.  The final event of the Friday night was the always exciting 4 x 800 metre. The women raced first and the Gryphons used a strong anchor leg from Sophie Watts to grab the bronze medal.  A men's squad composed of two rookies and a second year battled hard for a sixth place finish.  As the Gryphons rested their heads Friday night they were leading both competitions but knew that they would need a massive Saturday to be able to knock off the heavily favoured Toronto Varsity Blues on the women's side and Windsor Lancers on the men's.

The first event of day three was the women's triple jump, with the Blues expected to score 10 points for the win, the Gryphons needed to rely on their depth to try to balance the points.  Second year jumper Jordan Bates finished fourth with a jump 11.89 metres, rookie Clare Thompson narrowly missed out on the final as she was passed by three jumpers at the end of round three to bump her out.  On the oval the women's 600 saw Olivia Romaniw place sixth overall, added three critical points to the Gryphons total, a 3-7 finish by the University of Toronto pushed them into lead.  The men's 600 had two Lancers and Tommy Land for the Gryphons.  Land, practiced a similar tactic to Friday's 1000 closing extremely hard down the final straight to grab the bronze by less than a hundredth of a second, with the Lancers finishing 1-6 and with a 4-5 finish in the pole vault they had now moved into the lead.   Up next was the women's 4 x 200 metres, the Gryphons all rookie squad handily won section one breaking the school record running 1:39.10.   After the second section, the Gryphons would wind up grabbing a critical bronze medal and narrowing the gap on Toronto to three points heading into the 1500.  Guelph and Toronto athletes composed 5 of the 11 runners in the women's 1500 metres.    The two teams nearly matched each other in the event.  Katelyn Ayers captured her second individual medal of the meet winning silver, while Sophie Watts finished fifth overall, the Blues responded with a 1-6 finish to give them one more point than the Gryphs and a fourpoint gap.  In the men's 1500 metres Christian Gravel placed fifth and Mostafa Elkurdy sixth as the Gryphons scored 7 points to the Lancers 6 in the event; however a 2-5 finish by the Lancers in the shot put would put the meet out of reach for the Gryphons as the Lancers defended their CIS title.   In the final event of the day the Gryphon men finished fourth in the 4 x 400 metre relay to come up 13.50 points short of the Lancers in their quest for the CIS title.  The silver medal is the Gryphons seventh straight gold or silver finish at the CIS Track and Field Championships.

The women's battle was still in doubt as the team's entered the final two events.  In the women's high jump Maja Naruscewicz grabbed the bronze with a jump of 1.70 metres, Toronto's Danielle Delage did her one better capturing the silver on a clutch 1.73 third attempt clearance to send the Varsity Blues into the final event with a six point lead.   Needing a top three finish and some help the Gryphons were unable to summon the magic as a team of three rookies and Katelyn Ayers, running her fourth race of the weekend, could do no better than 10th giving the Varsity Blues the title.  The Gryphons would finish 14 points behind Toronto a remarkable accomplishment as before the meet they were projected to trail the Blues by over 40 points.  The silver medal returned the Gryphons to the podium after a fourth place finish last year.   The Gryphons have been on the CIS podium seven of the last nine seasons in track and field.