4x800m wins highlight day one of Can-Am Classic

The University of Windsor Lancers track and field team opened day one of the 43^rd annual Can-Am Classic meet at the Dennis Fairall Fieldhouse on Friday (Jan. 9) night, highlighted by wins in the 4x800m, men's shot put, and women's triple jump.

On the track, Samara Quanz had the best individual finish, placing third in the 3000m with a time of 9:44.29. Ainsley Rocheleau followed her with a 10:19.91 time, earning an eighth-place finish. On the men's side, Andreas Pardalis had a personal-best 3000m time of 8:34.02 to place eighth.

The 60m hurdles saw two seventh-place finishes for the Lancers, with Ella Koller having a time of 8.85s for the women and Sadrak Moro at 8.68s on the men's side.

The team of Cali Marles, Maya Metivier, Nadia Pupatello, and Avery McGregor placed second in the 4x200m with a time of 1:43.28, and Madalynn McGregor, Lia Acanne, Erin Bailey-Roy, and Maya Joaquin finished fourth. The best men's finish of fourth place by the group of Noah Waddel-Henry, Ryan Holly, Cameron John-Dunslow, and Tristen Miscia was done with a time of 1:30.93, followed by Brett Beazley, Jack Banfield, Damilare Okeyinka, and Evan Martin just one-hundredth of a second behind.

A highlight of the night came with the Lancers winning both the men's and women's 4x800m relay races. Natalie Fortier, Ella Heredi, Joelle Olla, and Isabella Goveia won the women's with a time of 9:05.83, three seconds ahead of second-place Toronto. The men's squad of Noah Costa, Kai Luong, Abdullahi Abdullahi, and Noah Waldmann narrowly took home first place with a time of 7:44.59.

The field events saw Mikayla May and Chloe VidAmour earn first- and second-place finishes in the women's triple jump, with May jumping 11.73m for first place and VidAmour 11.56m for second. AJ Stanat improved upon his U SPORTS qualifying-mark from the Blue and Gold meet with a 18.84m throw to claim the top spot in men's shot put, followed by Colin Dawson with a 14.60m mark in third. In pole vault, Grace Elford finished fourth in with a height of 3.80m. Harley Martin tied for fifth in women's shot put with a 11.99m mark.