The University of Windsor Lancers hope to sweep the team banners for the second straight year when the best university track and field athletes in the country meet in Winnipeg for the 2012 Canadian Interuniversity Sport indoor championships.
The three-day national meet, hosted by the University of Manitoba, will kick off Thursday with the season awards luncheon. The first final of the championships, the women’s weight throw, follows shortly after; the meet concludes Saturday afternoon.
The Windsor women are looking for their fourth consecutive CIS title. After edging archrival Guelph by a single point back in 2009, they crushed the competition at the last two nationals, winning by 41 points over Toronto in 2010 and by 55.5 over Guelph a year ago. Despite their status as reigning national and conference champs, the Lancer women head into the CIS meet ranked second behind the Guelph Gryphons, who settled for third place at the Ontario championships.
On the men’s side, the Lancers were even more dominant at last year’s nationals, finishing with a mind-boggling 84-point lead over Regina. With the triumph, Windsor avenged a heartbreaking one-point loss to Guelph in 2010.
The Lancers picked up where they left off this season as they claimed a 14th straight provincial men’s title. They are 34.5-point favourites this week, with conference rivals Guelph, York, Ottawa and Western following in the rankings.