Student athletes win gold and silver at national championships

York University Lions track and field athletes Ingvar Moseley and Chris Theriau won gold and silver medals in the 110-metre hurdles at the Canadian Track & Field Championships in Calgary on the weekend.

Moseley, a Pickering, Ontario, native who recently completed his rookie season with the Lions, won the race in a time of 14.26 seconds, and Theriau, of Kentville, Nova Scotia, crossed the finish line 0.10 seconds later.

Ingvar MoseleyRight: Ingvar Moseley

The national title for Moseley caps off what has been a tremendous year for the first-year runner. At his first Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) championship in March, he captured the silver medal in the 60-metre hurdles in a photo finish and also earned a silver medal as a member of the Lions 4 x 200-metre relay team.

Theriau completed his fifth year of eligibility in 2010 and ended his varsity career with a silver medal in the 60-metre hurdles at the CIS championships one year before Moseley turned the trick. Despite no longer competing for the Lions, he remains a student at York and is currently working on a master’s degree in kinesiology and health science.

In addition to Moseley and Theriau, several other Lions also participated in the Canadian outdoor championships last week.

Dontae Richards-Kwok just missed the podium on two occasions at the national meet, finishing fourth in both the 100-metre and 200-metre. The Mississauga, Ontario, native was the MVP of the Lions track and field team this past season after winning four gold medals at the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) championships, as well as one gold and two silvers at the CIS championships.

Also picking up a fourth-place finish was thrower Daniel Novia of Mississauga, who accomplished the feat in the hammer throw. His best toss was recorded at 63.93 metres, just 38 centimetres behind the bronze-medal winning distance.

The Lions combined for five other top 10 finishes at the meet. The trio of Cynthia Appiah of Etobicoke, Elizabeth Petrov of Richmond Hill and Kristin Obrochta of Mississauga, combined for four top 10s between them. Petrov had the best result with a sixth-place showing in the shot put, while Appiah was eighth in the shot and 10th in the hammer throw, two places behind Obrochta’s eighth in the same event.

The final top 10 came from Umar Khan of Scarborough, who placed eighth in the men’s shot put to go along with an 11th-place finish in the discus throw.

Rounding out the field was Kevin Montgomery of Carrying Place, Ontario, who recently finished his final year as a member of the Lions cross country and track and field teams. He was 22nd in the 800-metres and 27th in the 1500-metres.

The Lions will soon wrap up their outdoor seasons and begin focusing again on the OUA indoor schedule, which gets underway in November.