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Spartans Track & Field team excels at U Sports Nationals

Trinity Western University Spartans’ Emma Nuttall set a new U Sports record on the way to winning gold in high jump at the national Track and Field championships in Calgary on Saturday. Nuttall’s victory tops off the Spartans’ best-ever showing at the event.

Nuttall—who hails from Edinburgh, Scotland and won Canada West gold two weeks ago—bested the previous U Sports mark of 1.87m, set by UBC’s Tami Lutz in 1986. By clearing her personal best and Spartans’ record 1.88m, the Spartans high jumper now owns both the U Sports and Canada West records.

“I knew I had that jump in me,” said Nuttall. “It was a wee bit nerve-wracking, but once I got the support of the crowd, I really fed off that energy, and I knew I could make the jump.”

Friday’s highlights included gold medal wins for Dawson Creek’s Fiona Benson in the 1000m, and Surrey’s Sabrina Nettey in long jump. Nettey, who set a conference-record jump of 6.32m at the Canada West championships, was also named Female U Sports Athlete of the Year (Field) earlier in the week.

Three other Spartans won medals: Sarah Inglis of Falkirk, Scotland, won gold in the 1500m, while Nathan George and James Linde, both of Coquitlam, won silver in the 300m and bronze in long jump, respectively.

The U Sports medals were firsts for Nettey, George, and Linde. Benson’s win marked her best-ever finish, after winning a bronze medal in the 1500m in 2012.

As a team, the women’s side—who captured the school’s first-ever track and field Canada West championship two weeks ago—earned a school record 64 points, bettering its previous score of 39.25 points from last year. On the men’s side, the Spartans finished a best-ever 11th overall.

Spartans coach Laurier Primeau is happy with the trajectory of his team. “We’re moving in the right direction,” he said. “We’re looking forward to continuing to build and improve. We have some great recruits coming in and we lose virtually no U Sports points to graduation.”