Lawrence, Bisons shine at national track and field championships

University of Manitoba Bisons student-athlete Madisson Lawrence won a pair of gold medals and was named female athlete of the meet at the 2023 U SPORTS track and field championships in Saskatoon over the weekend.

Lawrence placed first in the pentathlon Thursday and then leaped to a gold in the high jump Saturday.

The Winnipegger registered 4,114 points — a U of M record — during the five-event pentathlon competition on Day 1 of the meet. Lawrence finished fourth in the 60-metre run, won the high jump with a leap of 1.80m, threw a personal best in the shot put at 11.47m, finished with a leap of 5.59m in the long jump and came second in the 800m run, with a time of 2:18.96.

On Saturday in the individual high-jump event, Lawrence and Hannah Blair of Waterloo (Ont.) both jumped above 1.73m but the Oak Park grad was successful on her first attempt at 1.76m, and Blair couldn’t match.

Overall, the Bison women finished in seventh place in the country, up three spots from 2022.

The U of M men, however, captured the overall bronze medal, finishing just behind Toronto. Perennial powerhouse Guelph (Ont.) won both the men’s and women’s overall titles.

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The Bisons’ men’s 4x400m relay team — Tyler Cox-Yestrau, Noel Kendle, Dawson Mann and Tristan Allen — raced to gold on Saturday.

Allen had to speed ahead of Guelph’s Daniel Harper on the final leg, dashing to the inside with about 100 metres to go.