The Gryphons plan to use a grant to boost the immediate and future performance of Guelph’s track and field community.

Over the weekend the Gryphons track and field team travelled to Western for the first OUA meet of the year.

“I would say it was our best season opener in the last ten years,” said assistant coach Chris Moulton. “It’s a really exciting team right now, I think the momentum is really good.”

The momentum Moulton mentions should prove useful as the men and women of the track and field team are on the hunt for a national championship.

That hunt will be aided by the recent grant of $99,500 from the Ontario Trillium Foundation to the local Speed River Track and Field Club, an organization founded by head coach Dave Scott-Thomas in 1997. The Speed River program trains athletes from the University of Guelph in addition to many Olympic caliber and amateur athletes living in the Guelph area.

Moulton, also involved in Speed River, suggests that the grant will be an excellent way to bring the local track and field community together. On Dec. 1, Moulton and Scott-Thomas hosted a roundtable discussion with the high school coaches in the area.

“I’ve been to the high schools in the area. Some of the equipment they’re using is archaic at times,” said Moulton. “As a city, we’ve got a lot of great athletes, all the way from little kids, to master athletes [over forty], and they’ve been training with very poor equipment.”

“We’re going to use this money to try and get the entire spectrum of athletes the right type of equipment,” he added.

According to Moulton, “doing a lot with a little” has been the situation of Guelph’s track and field community lately. With the construction of the new field house at the university, the Gryphons look to improve the university athletes’ performance, as well as promote the sport within the Guelph community, particularly to the younger crowd.

“We want [young people] to be exposed to our sport, but we want them to be exposed to it using the right equipment,” he said. He explained that it does no good to have a six year old try and toss a regulation discus; the purchasing of age-appropriate equipment will help garner interest in the sport’s future generations.

“Because we’ve been successful, our team gets a lot of exposure. We need to take that exposure and turn it into something positive,” he stated.

The exposure is coming from both the university program and Speed River’s connection to Olympic-caliber athletes. However, the exposure they generate will help promote the sport as a whole.

“They’re what we like to call, ‘the top of the iceberg,’ and the community sees that; but the other 90 per cent of athletes are working hard as well. We want to cultivate their abilities as well,” said Moulton.

All this is being done in an effort to promote Guelph as the “Track and Field Capital of Canada,” something the perennially successful cross-country team contributes to as well. The development of this community as a track and field hotbed can only lead to bigger and better things for both the Gryphons and the non-university athletes pursuing their athletic interests.

The development of Guelph’s track and field program can only lead to positive ends for the local athletic community. For the Gryphons, it could relay into national championships for generations to come.

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