Two York University Lions athletes were recently recognized for their performance – with one earning a bronze medal at the Canada Cup of International Wrestling and another earning a spot on Athletics Canada's North American, Central American and Caribbean (NACAC) U23 Championships.
Town brings home bronze at Canada Cup
York University Lions women's wrestler Alexandria Town brought home some hardware last weekend as she won the bronze medal at the Canada Cup of International Wrestling hosted at the Sleeman Centre in Guelph, Ontario.
Competing in the 58kg division, Town (Scarborough, Ont.) had a tough opening round matchup against Jacarra Winchester, a U.S.A. national team member and two-time U.S. national champion. Town dropped the opening round match to Winchester and went on to face 2016 Canadian junior national champion Tianna Kennet in the second round. While leading the match 4-2, Town pinned Kennet to advance to the bronze medal match.
In the bronze medal final, the third-year kinesiology and health science major earned a dominant win over Krystin Paquette of the University of Alberta. Town was technically superior throughout the matchup scoring a 10-0 victory over Paquette, who was the 2016 senior national championships silver medalist at 58kg. Winchester won the gold medal with a 14-3 victory over Emily Schaefer of Brock University.
The Canada Cup bronze medal adds to Town's list of accomplishments in 2016, which include a bronze medal at both the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) and Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) Championships, and the CIS Student-Athlete Community Service and CIS Fair Play awards for her commitment to sportsmanship, academics and community service pursuits off the mat.
For full results please visit the Wrestling Canada website.
Crew named to NACAC U23 championship team
Lions thrower Brittany Crew was named to Athletics Canada's North American, Central American and Caribbean (NACAC) U23 Championships team, the organization announced on June 23.
The NACAC Championships, which feature the top U23 athletes from across North America, Central America and the Caribbean, will run from July 15 to 17 in San Salvador, El Salvador.
Crew (East York, Ont.) earned her spot on the team by easily meeting the shot put selection standard of 15.20m with performances earlier in the spring. She also met the shot put Olympic standard of 17.75m in May at the Tucson Elite Throwers Classic at the University of Arizona, putting her in strong contention for a spot on the Rio Olympic Team.
Prior to the NACAC U23 Championships, Crew will compete in the Canadian Track & Field Championships in Edmonton on July 7 to 10. The Canadian Championships doubles as the Olympic Trials for selection to the 2016 Olympic team, where a top-three finish will earn Crew a spot on the Olympic Team.
Crew won nearly everything possible this year in the CIS, en route to establishing herself as one of the best throwers in the country. She set personal bests in the weight throw and shot put at the York Open in the middle of the season and swept the gold medals in both events at the OUA and CIS championships. She also set the CIS Championships record in the shot put and earned the OUA and CIS field events athlete of the year awards and was named York's female athlete of the year for the second consecutive year.
For the full list of athletes who qualified for the NACAC U23 Championships, visit the Athletics Canada website.