The Carleton Ravens track and field team came away with medals, personal and near-personal bests at the U SPORTS track and field Championships from Mar. 9-11 at the University of Alberta.
The Ravens were represent at the Championships by Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec Male Athlete of the Championships Telvin Tavernier, Sebastian Saville, and Amelia Brohman represented the Ravens. The team finished 13th out of 22 schools with 19 points.
At the Championships, Saville set the Carleton record for the 600-metres with a time of 1:18.79 minutes and finished fourth overall.
Tavernier won a silver medal in the heptathlon and a bronze medal in the pole vault. He also passed or tied a personal best in five of seven events.
“For sure the best meet of my career so far,” Tavernier said. “All my event goals of what I wanted to run, what I wanted to jump, what I wanted to throw, I actually pretty much hit those dead on which is pretty incredible.”
At Carleton, Tavernier, a civil engineering major, said his academic works helps him with athletics.
“Analyzing technique and form in certain events is pretty easy for me,” he said. “I like breaking things down to forces . . . When something’s not working, I’m good at breaking down literally what my body’s doing and changing,” he said.
Brohman finished fifth in the 60-metre dash, with a near-personal best of 7.55 seconds, just 0.01 seconds behind her personal best.
“It was fun,” she said. “I’ve done a lot of national track meets throughout my life so it was kind of like another track meet but it was a great experience. There was good energy. A lot of team-spirit.”
“[Myself and coach Lyndon George] wanted to work on my explosiveness and power because we knew that I had the speed, I had the endurance but I just needed to get out quick,” Brohman said.
Brohman said she also runs outdoors in the 100, 200-metres as well as the 4×100-metres relay. But she was sidelined with a knee injury in 2014 and 2015.
“I’ve learned to not give up,” she said of her recovery from injury. “I’ve learned that I’m strong and I’m determined than I ever thought possible and that my coach believes in me more than I know.”
She said said her performances at the 2013 Canada Games and the Pan-Am Junior Championships motivated her through her injury. She earned a gold at the Canada Games 200-metres and bronze in the 100-metres.
“I just went for it. I ran as hard as I could and the whole race I saw nobody,” Brohman said. “I finished and I like bawled my eyes out.”
“Those two moments were my proud moments and that’s what’s getting me through and got me through my injury,” she said.
Both Tavernier and Brohman said the support from teammates along the way helped them throughout their training.
“We’re all super motivated, super supportive of each other, excited for each other’s progress,” Tavernier said. “We want to help each other just love the sport and it makes you enjoy it. And when you enjoy something, you can go there five days a week . . . It makes it super easy to go to practice.”
“They’re what get me through practices,” Brohman said. “They’re what keeps me coming back. And if it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t enjoy it.”
