Trinity Western first-year Kenny Blackman Jr. captured Canada West gold in the 60 metre dash with a winning time of 6.93 Saturday in Edmonton.
It was one of four gold medals harvested by athletes from the Langley university.
Blackman Jr., who entered the competition ranked first in Canada West, alongside teammate Praise Olatoke , didn’t disappoint in his first-ever conference meet, bettering a pair of University of Saskatchewan sprinters to take top spot. For his performance, Blackman Jr. was named the Canada West Men’s Track Rookie of the Year.
Fellow Spartan Ben Tjernagel was fourth and Olatoke was fifth.
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TWU competitors earned triple jump gold in both the men’s and women’s events.
Mowa Adeleye took the top prize with a personal best mark of 12.13m. The third-year Adeleye has steadily moved up the Canada West podium, having captured bronze in 2017 and silver in 2018. She is also the first Spartans female athlete to win a field event gold since Emma Nuttall did so in high jump in 2016.
On the men’s side, third-year Denzel Brown finished first with a jump of 14.48m. The gold medal marks Brown’s first trip to the podium at the Canada West Championships. Brown is the first Spartans male athlete to win a triple jump gold medal at the conference meet.
Also getting in on the Spartans medal haul on Saturday was Chris Weiss, who nabbed a silver medal in the heptathlon, collecting 4548 points. In doing so, Weiss bettered his fourth place finish at the conference meet in 2018. A Spartan has now medalled in the heptathlon in three of the last four years, with alum Cale Hernandez winning gold in 2016 and multi-eventer turned pole vaulter David Boyd
Other notable scoring performances includes Mirelle Martens finishing fourth in the 1500m in 4:41.23, with Langley’s Jennifer Shannon close behind in seventh with a time of 4:48.36.
In the men’s 600m, Aidan Kits (Langley) was fifth in 1:22.06, while TWU had three scoring efforts in the men’s 1500m, with Nick Colyn (Langley) finishing fifth in 3:59.87, Tyler de Jong (Langley) coming sixth in 3:59.88 and Caleb de Jong crossing in seventh in 3:59.98.
TWU finished the Canada West championships with nine medals, including four gold, four silver and one bronze.
Spartans men’s team finished fourth overall, with 92 points, while the women’s team was fifth, with 67 points.
With 14.25 points, including second in the 3000m (eight points), fourth in the 1500m (five points) and fourth in the 4x800m (1.25 points), Martens was TWU’s top scorer over the championship meet.
TWU Canada West Championship Medals
Gold (four) – Mowa Adeleye (Triple Jump), Grace Konrad (300m), Kenny Blackman Jr. (60m), Denzel Brown (Triple Jump)
Silver (four) – Mirelle Martens (3000m), Caleb de Jong (3000m), Chris Weiss (Heptathlon), Men’s 4x800m
Bronze (one) – Rachel Jerome (Long Jump)