A thrilling victory by the men's 4x200-metre relay team capped off the University of Regina's track & field teams' performance on Saturday at the 2023 U SPORTS Championships in Saskatoon.
The Cougars led that race from wire to wire. Usheoritse Itsekiri, who won gold in the 60-metre dash on Thursday, got the Cougars out to a quick start from the outside lane and passed the baton off to rookie Storm Zablocki. Zablocki, the national bronze medalist in the 60, passed it to Logan Fettes who held the inside and staved off a challenge from Manitoba to get the baton to rookie Brett Franklin with the Cougars still in the lead.
"We showed the country that, pound for pound, we are among the best track & field teams in the nation."
Chad Kichula, Cougars interim head coach
And Franklin did the rest, pulling away down the stretch to lock up the school's first-ever national gold medal in a relay event.
The Cougars finished with a winning time of 1:27.74, breaking the old University of Regina record of 1:27.98 which was set by Mason Foote, Ethan Gardner, Tait Nystuen, and David Walford back in 2011.
"It was an amazing event to watch and the other teams brought more speed early than we had anticipated," Cougars interim head coach Chad Kichula said. "Dushos got us off to a quick start, Storm really tapped into his speed on the back straightaway to keep us on the inside lane, and Logan and Brett were able to hold off the challenges. It was an absolute storybook ending for these guys."
Thomas Haidl also earned a medal in the 4x200 as he stepped in for the third leg during Thursday's prelims with Fettes busy with the heptathlon.
The men's team finished tied for sixth in the overall standings with 34 points. The women's team finished in ninth place in the standings with a total of 22 points, with Joely Welburn accounting for 18 of those points. Welburn had medals on the opening two days of competition including silver in the pentathlon on Thursday and bronze in the long jump on Friday.
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"We showed the country that, pound for pound, we are among the best track & field teams in the nation," Kichula said. "I'm so proud of not only our veterans for their leadership and performance, but for our many rookies that stepped up."
And the stage could be set for years to come for the Cougars, who had just two competitors this past weekend in their final season of U SPORTS eligibility.
Banner photo credit: Arthur Images