Track returns to pre-pandemic level

There were a lot of winning performances at the Can-Am Track and Field Meet held at the University of Windsor this past weekend, and a key observation. There were a lot more athletes and heats. "This is probably the largest field we've had in several years," said Windsor Lancers head coach Colin Inglis, "We have over 600 athletes here. Having Laurentian down has been great and having Detroit Mercy over for the competition has been huge as well."

Colin Inglis- Head Track and Field Coach at UWindsor

Inglis tells Powerplay Sports his team has grown and is up to about 120 athletes after dipping to around 90 after the pandemic. "During Covid you had a lot of kids that got out of sport and did different things," Inglis explained. "And now you're getting the next generation that weren't affected by Covid or started to get back into sport so now you have those kids graduating from high school and they're getting back into the sport and looking for things to do."

Ben Tilson, Grace Elford, Caleb Keeling and Owen MacNeill hit the national standard in their respective events at the Can-Am meet and automatically qualify for the national championships. Windsor now have eight athletes qualified across nine events and it's still early January.

"They are performing well," Inglis said. "Part of that stems back to the fact that we're hosting both OUA's (provincial championship) and also USports (national championship) this year. A number of our team are hungry after their great performances last year and they want to have a strong showing again at home."

The Lancers will be in Indiana, Toronto, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania before returning hom on February 7th for the annual Team Challenge. The provincial championships is scheduled to begin February 21st followed by the national championships March 6th.

Check out AJ Stanat winning the men's weight throw below brought to you by Team Brad Bondy Real Estate.