The Pandas pick up a pair of medals on Day 2 of the 2023 U SPORTS Championship in Saskatoon, while also setting a pair of program records in the process.
Catharina Kluyts successfully defended her national gold medal in the 60m hurdles, doing so in a program record-setting time of 8.16 seconds. Her time bests the previous Pandas record of 8.21 set by Kluyts in 2022, and was just off the U SPORTS record of 8.15 set in 2020.
The Pandas 4x800m relay team of Simi Rai, Olivia Cooper, Grace Cook, and Kaitlin Swartz also earned a silver medal, finishing with a time of 8:52.17, just four seconds behind the gold medal winning squad from Guelph.
While narrowly missing the podium with a fourth place finish, Olivia Cooper did set a program record in the 1000m with a time of 2:46.65. Cooper broke the previous Pandas record of 2:46.77, set by Mary Burzminski in 1985.
After two days of competition at the 2023 FFUN U SPORTS Track & Field Championship, presented by Discover Saskatoon, Guelph sits on top of the leaderboard in both the men's and women's team events. The men's team has 74 points after the first two days, followed by Toronto with 42.5 points and Manitoba with 34 points. On the women's side, Guelph has a commanding lead with 120 points. Western is in second with 41 points.
As a team, the Pandas sit in 4th overall with 31 points, while the Bears sit in 18th.
