After a long season, the McGill track and field team made its final trip of the year last weekend to Edmonton to compete in the CIS championships. McGill broke several records at the recently renovated Butterdome as the nation’s best competed in one of the country’s premier track and field facilities. McGill’s lone trip to the podium came from the men’s 4x400m relay, which captured silver on the meet’s final day, breaking a team record in the process.

This silver lining came on the heels of a frustrating weekend for the program. McGill’s women finished near the bottom of the pool, placing 20th of 22 teams. The men, on the other hand, managed a 12th-place finish thanks to the late medal.

“The men’s [4x400m team] winning a silver was definitely [a highlight of the day,]” McGill Head Coach Dennis Barrett said. “[We were] missing one runner who couldn’t make it out for personal reasons, which didn’t help our [4x200m] relay. But the guys who were there did well.”

The weekend was dominated by the York Lions and Guelph Gryphons, who captured the men’s and women’s championships, respectively.

For York—the winners of the McGill Team Challenge in January—this championship is its first in 30 years. The Lions’ score of 103 points was just good enough to top the defending men’s champions from Guelph, who finished with 97 points. The Gryphons’ women’s squad scored a point fewer than its male counterpart, but still came out on top for the second title in their program’s history.

The three-day event capped off what was a difficult year for the squad. The team battled injuries throughout the season and never fully hit its stride. Fortunately for McGill, a number of its key competitors should be returning in the Fall. Of the silver-medal winning group, Vincent Parent-Pinchette and anchor Javier Montaivo will be returning, with Alexander Steinbrenner and Eric Ellemo graduating after this year. The foursome earned a time of 3:17.86—barely a second back of the gold medal-winning group from York.

McGill’s sophomore high jump star Caroline Tanguay put in a solid performance with one of her best jumps of the season measured at 1.73m. The jump, however, left Tanguay short of medal territory as she placed fourth, just 0.03m back of third-place Rachel Machin of Calgary. Still, the fourth-place finish was an improvement from the 2013 Championships in which she placed seventh. With plenty of time left in her university career, Tanguay still has room to improve and will have her sights set on a podium finish come next season.

Another of McGill’s rising stars, Dylan Golow, also managed to come within striking distance. The junior from Barrie, Ontario placed fifth in the Pentathlon, scoring 3637 points, 45 points fewer than the bronze medal-winner. This is a big step in the right direction for Golow, considering he failed to crack the top 10 last year. Barring any surprises, Golow—like Tanguay—will be back in the Fall and could be a favourite to medal this time next year.

Barrett has high hopes for next season’s team­­—especially if McGill is able to land the top recruits that it is after.

“We try and recruit as best we can,” he said. “We need a lot of athletes for our track program, unless we get 10 blue-chip athletes for both the men’s and women’s side.  Some of the recruits on our list right now […] first [have] to get into McGill and then we go from there.”