Golden Hawks shine at London track meet

This past week in London, Laurier’s indoor distance team put together a strong performance in the Don Wright Team Challenge hosted by the athletics department at Western University. 

In what was the third meet of the season and the second of the new year, several individual performances from Laurier’s athletes stood out.

From first-year long jumper Vahaab Ladha to the dynamic duo of fourth-year runners Sydney Pattison and Lizzy Laurie, who continue to enhance their Laurier legacy, Laurier was well represented this past weekend. 

Coming off a first-place finish and gold medal in the first meet of the year, last week at the Can-Am Classic in Windsor, Sydney Pattison continued her incredible season this past weekend in London.

In the 1500-metre race, Pattison continued to shine as she won silver, finishing in second place at the meet.

This coming just one week after winning gold in Windsor.

With her average time of four minutes and 32 and a half seconds running the 1500-metre, Pattison sits ranked third in Canada in distance running.

She continues to add to the list of achievements she has earned, now in her fourth year at Laurier. 

With another spectacular season this year, Pattison could be in the running for the outsanding woman of Laurier award once again- an award that she won last year for her results. 

Although her time with the Golden Hawks is coming to an end given provincial championships upcoming, the legacy that Syndey Pattison has left at the program has been profound.

Her friend and teammate Lizzy Laurie, who produced an outstanding 2019 season, also performed well last week, as she finished second place in the long-distance running at the Can-Am Classic.

In the 3000-metre race, Laurie finished with a time of nine minutes and 54 seconds, which was good enough for second place.

After another strong performance this weekend, Laurie ranks 11th in USPORTS distance running with a time just above four minutes. 

The track teams have been dominated by this dynamic duo all year and, frankly, for the past four years.

As mentioned, Pattison went on to win the outstanding women award, while Laurie was honoured with several athlete of the week awards in 2019, including being honoured by USPORTS for her cross country accolades in the first term of this year.

Both veterans, Pattison and Laurie, have put together stellar careers in their four years with the program but know that their time is running out.

While they are the driving force of the indoor middle distance and cross country teams, it wasn’t just those two who shined for Laurier this weekend in London.

First year long jumper, Vahaab Ladha from Oakville, Ontario represented Laurier well through a series of events over the weekend .

Ladha picked up a first-place finish for Laurier in what was just his third ever university level track meet.

By jumping 6.78 metres, Ladha won the gold in London and improved nearly 40 centimetres off of his previous best jump , which was 6.29 metres, last week at the Can-Am Classic in Windsor.

With that result, Vahaab Ladha was named male athlete of the week for the first time as he reached the top 20 nationally in long jumping distance for his performances over this past weekend. 

The rookie has performed well in the university meets that he has attented, although it has only been three. In every meet this year, Ladha has improved on his previous mark, as he is an optimistic student athlete for the Golden Hawks.

After an overall strong performance in London, the indoor distance team will focus on the next meet, which will take place in just over two weeks, hosted by the Windsor Lancers department of athletics.

The Windsor Team Challenge takes place on Feb. 9, which is the next time we will see the dynamic duo and Ladha.

The last meet of the regular season campaign, is Feb. 14 for the Hal Brown Last Chance track meet, carried out by the University of Toronto.

With just two meets left, the duo of Laurie and Pattison, along with the team as a whole, has their eyes set towards the OUA Championships in Toronto, which starts one month from today.

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