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Spartans overcome altered travel plans for strong showing in Edmonton

Fog delayed the Trinity Western track and field team, but it couldn't slow the athletes, who returned with a handful of school records

Despite not arriving until 2 a.m. on the day of their competition, members of the Trinity Western Spartans track and field team delivered a strong performance.

The Spartans plane from Abbotsford to Edmonton was delayed because of fog on Friday morning, forcing the alteration in the schedule.

The team was off to Edmonton for the Golden Bear Open on Jan. 19 and returned with a silver medal and a handful of school records.

"All in all, it was a good weekend, but not what we had gone to Edmonton to do," said Spartans coach Laurier Primeau.

"We made do with the events we had. We had some pretty remarkable results given the dramatic change in scheduling that resulted because of the fog in Abbotsford and a change in flight times."

For the second straight week, Liza Whitehead delivered a silver-medal performance as she finished with a personal best of 7.57 in the 60m race.

Other school records included Jamie Sinclair in the pole vault (4.40m), and in both the men's and women's 4x200m relays.

The women's team — Hazel Ross, Anastasia Pearse, Maya Daly and Whitehead — were third overall with a time of of 1:43.23. That is good for fourth in the Canadian Interuniversity Sport rankings.

The men's team — James Linde, Stephen Humphrey, Tunji Taylor-Lewis and Sinclair — finished fifth with a time of 1:32.61, which is good for ninth in the CIS rankings.

Sinclair's pole vault mark put him in a tie for seventh in the CIS rankings and second amongst Canada West athletes.

Also competing with Whitehead in the 60m race were Daly and Pearse, who finished ninth and 13th, respectively.

And on the men's side, all four runners were part of the field in the 60m race. Sinclair was ninth, Humphrey and Linde finished tied for 16th while Taylor-Lewis did not make the finals.

Up next for the Spartans is the University of Washington Invitational on Jan. 26.