Banner Season: Gryphons on track for double gold after action-packed first day of OUA Track & Field championships
Toronto, Ont. (via York Lions) - Friday marked the opening day of the 2026 OUA Track & Field Championships from the Toronto Track & Field Centre in North York.
The action kicked off with the men’s weight throw. The opening podium of the meet was Jason Okpere from the Toronto Varsity Blues with the gold, Zac Osborne from the host York Lions with the silver, and AJ Stanat from the Windsor Lancers with the bronze.
The first OUA record to be broken was courtesy of the Guelph Gryphons Rebecca Parker, who outdid her own 60mH pentathlon mark from last season of 8.49 seconds by a full tenth, winning that section of the event in 8.39 seconds. Parker also shattered her overall pentathlon record from a year ago, finishing atop the charts and grabbing gold with 4293 points, 93 better than her record set a year ago. Rounding out the pent podium were Parker’s teammate Paige Zinger and Riley Robitaille of the Lancers.
The next set of medals came in the 1000m events, with Julia Agostinelli of the Toronto Varsity Blues taking the women’s gold, followed by Sophie Coutts of Western and Isabella Goveia of Windsor. The men’s race, meanwhile, saw Windsor’s Noah Costa and Abdullahi Abdullahi win gold and silver, respectively, with Charlie Shaw from Guelph rounding out the podium.
In the 60mH final for the men, the gold went to Guelph’s Keon Rude, the silver to David Adeleye of the Mustangs, and rounding out the podium with the bronze was Samuel Princeau of the York. While in the 60mH final for the women, the gold went to Guelph’s Hailey Reid, the silver to Paulina Procyk of the Varsity Blues, and rounding out the podium with the bronze was Rachel Watson of the Mustangs.
Shifting gears to the field, the women’s pole vault saw an OUA Championship record broken as Gryphon Jennifer Elizarov broke her own record from 2024 of 4.22m, setting a new record of 4.25m and earning the gold medal. Windsor's Grace Elford vaulted to 4.05m and received the silver medal, while Julia King of the Mustangs was awarded bronze for her 3.85m result.
On the track in the women’s 3000m, the win went to Western’s Maria Linton, followed by Samara Quanz of the Lancers in second, and in third place Alexandra McDougall of the Gryphons. On the men’s side, it was all McMaster Marauders, as they wound up with four of the top six finishers. That included bookending the podium, as Samuel Patrick paced the pack for gold, while William Weist took home bronze. Jack Lehto of the Guelph Gryphons was sandwiched between the two members of the maroon and grey, earning the silver.
In the women’s 300m race, Guelph’s Diana Proctor took home another OUA gold and came within whiskers of a championship record. Her run of 37.60 improved nearly more than half a second over her gold-medal run a year ago, and was just five one-thousandths of a second off the meet record set by Toronto’s Foy Williams in 1997 and equalled by Zoe Sharer of Guelph in 2022. The men’s event was won by Western’s Aaron Thompson with a 34.30, while Brandon Chuombe Yami of the Lions took silver and the Gryphons Mark Warner brought home bronze.
The men’s long jump and women’s shot put competitons were the penultimate field features of Day 1, with Western winning both gold and bronze. Jackson McKay topped the leaderboard a 7.31m jump of record, and Zach Courtney took the bronze with a long of 7.25, tying him with Guelph’s Sayanthan Arulrajan, who secured silver on the tiebreaker. In women’s shot put, all three medallists achieved national qualifying standards. Western’s Liv Sands earned gold with a toss of 17.42, Toronto’s Maakor Okai was the runner-up, Ottawa’s Jessica Gyamfi rounded out the podium and Lakehead’s Addisyn Franceschini competed in the para category.
The track portion of the day concluded with the 4x800m relays. Windsor’s quartet of Natalie Fortier, Ella Heredi, Joelle Olla and Goveia took home the gold with a U SPORTS standard of 8:52.81. The Toronto Varsity Blues and Western Mustangs earned silver and bronze, respectively. On the men’s side, the gold was also won by Windsor, with Costa, Abdullahi, K’ai Luong and Noah Waldmann allowing the Lancers to double up in the relay segment.
Lastly, the women’s long jump saw Parker win her second gold medal of the day with a national qualifying standard of 6.10m, just six one-hundredths of a meter ahead of the silver medal winning Mikayla May of Windsor. Brock’s Sarah Saldutto took home the bronze with the longest leap of 5.68.
Day two of the action kicks off bright and early on Saturday morning with the women’s weight throw at 9:00 am. You can purchase event tickets HERE or stream the action live on OUA TV all weekend long.
MEN’S TEAM STANDINGS
Guelph Gryphons – 71
Western Mustangs – 53
Windsor Lancers – 39
McMaster Marauders – 31
York Lions – 28
Toronto Varsity Blues – 22
Queen’s Gaels – 7
Ottawa Gee-Gees – 6
Brock Badgers – 6
Waterloo Warriors – 4
Laurier Golden Hawks – 3
Laurentian Voyageurs – 2
WOMEN’S TEAM STANDINGS
Guelph Gryphons – 84
Western Mustangs – 69
Windsor Lancers – 53
Toronto Varsity Blues – 44
York Lions – 27
McMaster Marauders – 12
Queen’s Gaels – 11
Ottawa Gee-Gees – 7
Waterloo Warriors – 2
Laurier Golden Hawks – 2
Brock Badgers – 1