The York University Lions track & field team combined to win 18 medals and break or tie three meet records at the OUA championships this past weekend at the Toronto Track and Field Centre.
The men's team finished in second place with 135.5 points, just 20 points away from capturing their first OUA championship in program history; while the women's team tallied 83 points, which was good for fifth place.
Click here for all Lions results Of the 18 medals won, 12 were gold, four silver and two bronze.
Leading the way were four double gold medallists
Eric Brathwaite (Brampton, Ont.),
Khamica Bingham (Brampton, Ont.),
Brittany Crew (East York, Ont.) and
Ayo Agusto (Toronto).
Brathwaite defended his spot as the OUA's premiere thrower by winning the weight throw and the shot put. His 19.59m throw in the weight throw was more than a metre better than silver medal winning Jared Skeath of Guelph and all three of his qualifying throws would have won him the gold. In the shot put, Brathwaite again dominated the competition with a throw of 17.56m, which was almost two metres better than the competition.
Bingham tied her own OUA best mark from a year ago running 7.23 seconds in the 60m to earn gold for the third straight season in the event. She also ran the opening leg of the 4x200m relay team that struck gold for the second straight year with a time of 1:38.96, which is the fastest time in the CIS this season. She was joined by
Sheereen Harris (Toronto),
Danielle Knight (Brampton, Ont.) and
Mikeisha Bobb (London, Ont.).
Making her mark on the history books the most this weekend was Crew who not only won gold in both the weight throw and the shot put, but set new OUA records in both events. Her 16.11m toss in the shot put was almost two metres better than the competition and beat her own OUA record by 31 centimetres. She is the only women's athlete in the country to have broken the 15 and 16-metre plane. In the weight throw, Crew shattered former Lion Kristen Obrochta's OUA record by throwing 18.69m. She was more than a metre better than the silver medal winning Ekua Cudjoe of Toronto.
In the 300m,
Ayo Agusto (Toronto) wowed the crowd winning gold with a personal best time of 34.23. He was followed closely by teammate
Bismark Boateng (Toronto) who won silver with a 34.76 second sprint. Agusto earned his second gold on the meet by running the second leg of the 4x200m relay, who defended their title by running 1:27.83. He was joined by
Jameel Brown (Brampton, Ont.),
Lucas Watson (Truro, N.S.) and
Xavier Jehovah (Toronto).
Boateng claimed his spot as Ontario's fastest by sprinting to a 6.80 second 60m. He was joined on the podium by
Ike Omoruna (Brampton, Ont.) who claimed the silver running a 6.90.
First year Lion
Nick Fyffe (Vancouver) made a splash in his first OUA championship by taking the top spot in the triple jump with a leap of 14.50m.
For the fourth consecutive year,
David McKay (Victoria) won gold in the pole vault. He earned it with a personal best 5.05m, which is the highest mark of the season in the CIS.
A pair of throwers in their first OUA medals as,
Chris Preece (Cookstown, Ont.) won bronze in the weight throw with a toss of 18.12m and
Anojan Sivalingam (Scarborough, Ont.) also took home bronze in the shot put with a 15.47m throw.
Rounding out the medal haul for the Lions was the 4x400m women's relay team who won silver. The team of
Harris,
Christy Ihumaegbo (East York, Ont.),
Bobb and
Meira Dholakia (Richmond Hill, Ont.) ran a season's best time of 3:50.98.