Courteney Rivait, Kelsey Balkwill, Alexia LamotheLancer Kelsey Balkwill (centre, with Courteney Rivait and Alexia Lamothe) won three gold medals and a bronze en route to most valuable performer honours at the national track championships.

Lancers win recognition at national track championships

It was a weekend of earned honours for Lancer women at the U Sports track and field championship tournament, Thursday through Saturday in the Dennis Fairall Fieldhouse.

The league named thrower Sarah Mitton its outstanding female field performer at its pre-competition awards brunch; sprinter Kelsey Balkwill earned recognition as meet MVP with a four-medal performance, including a Lancer record 1:29:37 to win the 600m race.

The Lancer women finished third in the team standings behind Guelph and Toronto; Windsor’s men finished 12th overall.

Mitton claimed gold in the shot put and silver in the weight throw events. Rachel Wolfs cleared 4.15m to take honours in the women’s pole vault.

Besides her 600m victory, Balkwill won gold in the 300m and as part of the 4x400m relay team, with Courteney Rivait, Kristy Hodgins, and Stephanie Shaw. She also won silver with Windsor’s 4x200m relay squad — Rivait, Shaw, and Kelly Hodgins.

See the full meet results at goLancers.ca.

Men’s volleyball advances to national level

The Lancer men’s volleyball team has secured its first-ever berth in the national championship tournament with a bronze-medal finish in the Ontario University Athletics playoffs, Saturday in Hamilton. It was the first time in program history the squad won an OUA medal.

The Lancers will head back to the Steel City for the eight-team U Sports tournament, March 16 to 18.