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Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference "To be Canada's premiere collegiate athletic conference by developing and inspiring leadership through excellence in academics, sport and citizenship"
Posted: Mar 06, 2017

Griffins Leggatt’s Leg Power wins Four Gold at ACAC Indoor Track

SAIT Trojans Men's Gold Team
SAIT Trojans Men's Gold Team

by ACAC Sports Writer Curtis J. Phillips

In his 80s', former Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta (1966-1974) Grant MacEwan was known to outpace reporters who were trying to interview him during his regular morning jogs.

So, it may be of no surprise that his namesake university, MacEwan University, has some swift feet or their own with their dominance this past weekend at the 2017 The Running Room Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) Indoor Track championships.

Held at Lethbridge's Foothills Track Facility and hosted by the Lethbridge Kodiaks, the MacEwan Griffins established their dominance quickly as on the opening day Friday of the six events held,  MacEwan won four (men's  300 metre, Thomas Cross-Trush,  36.52; women's 300 m, Nikita Case 41.55; women's 1000 m, Hannah Leggatt, 3:03.40; women's 3000 m, Hannah Leggatt, 11:01.38 ) and SAIT the other two (men's 1000 m, Jacques Saayman, 2:44.34; men's 3000 m, Alex Howells, 9:14.52)

With 18 medals up for grabs day one, MacEwan ran to nine, including the four gold. 

The most impressive of those wins was Thomas Cross-Trush claiming the men's 300 metre dash with a clocking of 36.53. Second place went to SAIT Trojans Colesen Faunt 38.26.

Photo by Nick Kuiper

"He is powerful and he has run a faster time (36.15) on another track indoors during the (ACAC) season,"  said Griffins head coach Drew Carver, of Trush's run, which sets a new ACAC Championship record, narrowly beating last year's 36.85 established by Griffins' Benjamin Williams.  

Case also established a new 300 m meet record for women. The previous standard was 41.81 held by Griffins' Amanda Ntiamoah.

"She performed beautifully and she has good power in these distances," said Carver of Case, a first-year student/athlete from Sherwood Park, Alberta.

In the men's 4 x 400 m relay Sunday the Kodiaks foursome of John Krause, Moses Chesseret, Boaz Korir and Dayton Jans were two second faster than the second place Griffins timing in 3:41.27 compared to 3:43.30.

The Griffins women's blew away the eight-team field in the 4 x 400 m behind the combined performances of Valerie Schlottke, Sydney Maziarz, Hannah Leggatt and Nikita Case. The winning time of 4:08.18 was far ahead of Red Deer Queens second place 4:24.35.

MacEwan added to their medal haul Saturday with Case claiming the 600 m 1:39.41 while Trojans' Chris Karg was top speedster in the men's 300 m at 1:28.72.

Leggatt  captured her fourth gold medal with a 4:58.78 performance in the women's 1,500.

"We knew she could possibly win all of the events but we needed to race them in a way that she could perform well in each one," said Carver of Leggatt, a 5-foot-10 second-year student/athlete enrolled in Bachelor of Science in Nursing. "She has run a 4:36.00 1,500 so you can see that she was running off her pace this weekend."

Trojans' Howells 4:20.13 was good enough for first in the men's 1,500 m…hi second gold medal.

"We had such a deep group of guys this year, and the women's side added some new runners, which was great," said Trojans co-head coach Bre Langley in a SAIT website feature. "What's great about this group is they're all good friends, they love being at the track and so it just created this amazing atmosphere and energy. . . It was that, that led to the success today.".

Griffins won the women's team title while the Trojans were top for the men.

MacEwan had previously won two women's crowns while Kodiaks had claimed two of the men's.

Of honourable mention is the performance of Griffins Roxanne Skoreyko with a 4th in the women's 3,000 and a 5th in the 1,500.

Skoreyko, who is enrolled as a mature student, was born only a few years after Grant McEwan left his Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta office in 1976.

"She is an all-star athlete," said Carver of Skoreyko, 37, who also played for the Griffins women's volleyball team from 1997-1999; Griffins winning the ACAC title in 1997-1998 going on to claim bronze at the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association women's volleyball championships held in Sherbrooke, Quebec.

 "When she comes to train with us there is no fooling around. She goes out there and competes with the young kids."