They may have finished runner-up six times in their quest for gold, but all those second-place finishes added up for the Trinity Western Spartans.
The men鈥檚 track and field team won 10 medals 鈥� two gold, six silver and two bronze 鈥� to capture the program鈥檚 first ever Canada West championship. They finished the two-day meet with 80 points while Alberta came second with 62.
The championships were held over the weekend in Regina and the TWU women鈥檚 team came fourth with seven medals and 48 points.
After sitting in fourth place through the first day of competition, the Spartans 61 points on Saturday proved to be just one point less than second-place Alberta scored throughout the entire meet.
Boyd's gold medal led the way for TWU as he helped the Spartans take heptathlon gold for the second year in a row. After an impressive pole vault effort that saw him clear 4.20m and collect 673 points, Boyd had just a 24-point lead going into the final event. He ensured his gold medal by winning the 1000m race with a gutsy effort that saw him cross the line in 2:54.61 鈥� just .14 ahead of the second-place finisher. Last year, TWU's Cale Hernandez also won the heptathlon.
While Boyd was finishing off his work in the heptathlon, the Spartans saw individual silver-medal efforts from George in the 600m with a time of 1:20.09, Declan White in the 1500m in 3:52.97, Stephen Humphrey with a Spartans record high jump mark of 2.03m and Maxime Leveille in pole vault with a clearance of 4.44m.
The relay teams also put impressive showings together as they won silver medals from the "slow" heats in both the 4x200m in 1:29.10 and 4x400m in 3:22.45.
Rounding out TWU's impressive medal count was first-year Aaron Postma who broke his own Spartans record and set a personal best in triple jump with a mark of 14.44m. The previous record was 14.21m.
The fifth-year Spartans duo of James Linde and George each captured three medals over the course of the meet as they both earned individual medals 鈥� Linde won gold in long jump and George took the 600m silver 鈥� and both were part of the Spartans 4x200m and 4x400m relay teams.
Linde helped TWU collect a whopping 22 points over the competition, as he earned seven points in long jump, a combined 10 points in the relays, three points from a fourth-place finish in the 60m and two more points from a fifth-place finish in the 300m.
The men's team had previously won Canada West silver in 2014 and bronze in 2015.
On the women's side, Mirelle Martens won her second medal of the meet, adding a 1500m bronze to the 3000m silver she won Friday. First-year Mowa Adeleye picked up her first medal as a Spartan in triple jump with a personal best mark of 11.77m.
The women's team, who finished with seven medals, landed fourth overall with 48 points, which was an improvement over their pre-competition sixth-place ranking. The Spartans women's team won the Canada West championship banner in both 2014 and 2015.
The Spartans now prepare for the U Sports championships March 9 to 11 in Edmonton.
