Photo courtesy John Roberts - www.moondancephoto.ca

CALGARY – Buoyed by Canada West Track Athletes of the Year Sam Effah and Amonn Nelson, the University of Calgary Dinos Track and Field squad is off to Windsor, Ont. this weekend in search of more individual hardware at the CIS Championships.

2009-10 Dinos Track & Field Media Guide (.pdf)

Effah, who won gold in both the Canada West 60m and 300m events, is the two-time reigning CIS Track Athlete of the Year, and will be aiming for the three-peat this weekend in Windsor. Effah will be competing in both individual sprint categories as well as the 4x200m relay event.

Calgary has captured the past three CIS male track athlete of the year awards, with Geoff Kerr taking the honour in 2006-07, while 2008 Beijing Olympian Jessica Zelinka also won the honour for the women alongside Kerr.

Mike Saizew and Evan Kimick will be medal hopefuls as well for Calgary, competing in two relays each, as well as the 600m and the 300m dashes respectively. Saizew took home two gold medals from the Canada West competition in Edmonton, both in the 4x400 relay and the 600m, while Kimick also took gold as Saizew's teammate in 4x400m, and silver as Effah's running partner in the 4x200m.

His success on the track notwithstanding, Kimick is the reigning CIS Student-athlete community service award winner as well. Kimick ran fourth at Canada West in the 300m, one and a half seconds behind Effah.

Calgary will once again lean heavily on their track athletes, as only Andrej Brajic and Robert Young will represent the Dinos in the field – both in the weight throw. The six-time CIS champion and host Windsor Lancers, as well as the 2007-08 champion Guelph Gryphons, who are currently ranked first in CIS, are expected to lead the way in the team standings. The Regina Cougars are still ranked just ninth (one spot ahead of Calgary), despite capturing the Canada West team title in Edmonton. Saskatchewan is the front-runner to lead the conference at the CIS meet, despite falling to Regina at the conference level.

Amonn Nelson is Calgary's biggest weapon on the female side, with her four gold medals leading the Dinos to third place at the Canada West championships.
 
Nelson, who triumphed in the 60m and 300m dashes, also steadied the 4x200m and 4x400m relays to first place. Danielle Kendall ran with Nelson in both gold-medal winning relay events, while also taking bronze in the 300m. Teammate Kelsey Lotwin followed closely in fourth and is also part of the 4x400 relay.

Both the 4x200 and 4x400 relay teams took silver at last year's CIS meet in Windsor, while Nelson is the reigning CIS 600m champion.

Valerie Hurdle, Riley McQueen, Madeline MacDonald and Michelle Seifert will compete in the 4x800m relay event for Calgary. Seifert will also compete in the 4x400m relay.

Jaime Waine took bronze in the weight throw at the conference level in Edmonton, and will lead the Dinos in the field category. The women will be looking up at the substantially favoured Windsor Lancers, who are nearly 38 full ranking points ahead of the Toronto Varsity Reds, who sit in second. Calgary will be fighting with the Canada West champion Saskatchewan Huskies and the Alberta Pandas for the honour of top Canada West team at the CIS meet.

The CIS Championships go at the St. Denis Centre in Windsor, Ont. and open Thursday afternoon.

-UC-