Four UofM Alumni compete at Canadian Track & Field Championships

Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada -- Canadian Senior Championships A huge thunderstorm rumbled through Winnipeg just as the meet was supposed to start on Friday June 25th. The storm left the track flooded and the skies filled with lighting and marble sized hail. Athletics Canada decided to cancel the evenings events and rescheduled some events for the next morning. MEN's 1500 Meter Ann Arbor's Kevin Sullivan the 25 year old University of Michigan Alumni competed in the 1500 meters on Saturday June 26th. Sullivan took the pace from the gun and came through with splits of 59., 1:59., 2:59.89. Even though it was extremly windy on the track, Sullivan said "I decided to stick to my pre-race plan of taking the early pace and trying to take the sting out of the kickers." Sullivan finish third at the 1998 Canadian Championships 1500 in a slow 3:52, and decided he wanted to make sure the pace was quick for 1999 Championships. Coming off the final bend Hood edged by Sullivan and surged toward the finish. Sullivan started to come back on Hood in the last 20m but it was too little too late. The final times were 3:42.66 to 3:42.68 in Hood's favor. Sullivan said "I was not completely dissapointed with the race because I ran strong and gutsy ...". Sullivan also will have a rematch with Hood on Friday July 2nd when they meet up again in Lausanne, Switzerland in the 1500m at the Grand Prix I meet. Also of note was that former Wolverine Scott MacDonald was fifth in the 1500m with a time of 3:47 and actually held the lead in the race from 1100m to 1200m. MEN'S 1500M 1.GRAHAM HOOD 3:42.66 2.KEVIN SULLIVAN3:42.68 3.RICH TREMAIN3:45.51 4.JEREMEY DEERE3:46.46 5.SCOTT MACDONALD3:47.93 WOMEN's 5000 Meter The women's 5000 meters also featured two Wolverines Karen Harvey (the Canadian record holder for the 3000 steeple chase) and Courtney Babcock. The race split up very early on with a group of five athletes consisting of Kathy Butler, Sara Dillibaugh, Carol Howe, and wolverines Babcock and Harvey, breaking away from the rest of the field. By two miles Courtney had fallen off the pace and there were four women fighting for the three medal positions. Shortly after two miles Kathy broke away and quickly put 70m on the three remaining women in the next two laps, but this was expected since Butler has already posted a 15:19 this year. Sara and Carol started to slowly pull away from Harvey but once the gap got to about 30m it remained that way. Sara pulled away from Carol in the last 600m and it looked like Harvey might be within striking range of the bronze medal. However Carol managed to hold of Harvey's late charge in the last lap and snatched the bronze medal. Karen Harvey ran her second fastest 5000m ever with a 16:14 and her highest placing at the Canadian Championships with 4th. WOMENS' 5000M 1.KATHERINE BUTLER15:56.19 2.SARAH DILLABAUGH16:07.44 3.CAROL HOWE 16:11.04 4.KAREN HARVEY 16:14.28 5.SARA DUPRE 16:25.29 6.DEBORAH BUHLERS16:32.76 7.LORI DURWARD 16:38.01 8.COURTNEY BABCOCK16:42.77 Complete Canadian Senior Championship Results -end-