VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds Track and Field and Cross Country program is fresh off the heels of its most successful year in history. Boasting both the 2023 men's and women's Cross Country U SPORTS titles along with the women's NAIA Track and Field championship (and a men's third place performance), there's plenty to be excited about as the 2024-25 seasons get underway.
Building on that excitement is yet another outstanding crop of talent being added to the blue and gold's roster.
"I think we have a really good balance between those who can make immediate impacts – largely those are probably athletes who have come to UBC via graduate programs or transfers – and those who we really feel we can develop, the true freshmen who are going to get some great experience," said UBC head coach
Laurier Primeau, now into his tenth season with the T-Birds.
The 16 women and 12 men joining the blue and gold this fall will benefit from the veteran leadership and championship calibre attitudes of their more experienced teammates – all of which will be hugely important to their development at the collegiate level.
"I know I say this every year, but what we want from them is to understand the age gap and the gap in experience between a first year and a fifth year is the same as if they were in eighth grade competing against twelfth graders," Primeau explained. "We don't need them to be twelfth graders, we need them to develop appropriately, listen to themselves and have bars and measures of success which makes sense for them."
As Primeau mentioned, there will be several who are able to contribute to the ongoing team success in their freshman season on the track, in the field, or on the course. But whether they are competing at U SPORTS or NAIA National Championship meets or training day in and day out to improve in their individual discipline of choice, all of them will undoubtedly contribute in different ways to one of North America's most successful collegiate programs.
"Our seniors, juniors or sophomores, what I really like about our experienced athletes is the culture and the comradery that they have. I think they stand to be phenomenal influences on our younger athletes. The age matters less than the kind of people they are and I just think we have some great people who are able to lead when appropriate, learn from mistakes and work to be better in some areas."
In addition to UBC's newest student-athletes, the Track and Field program is also welcoming one of the world's foremost throwing coaches in Derek Evely who is making the move back to his native British Columbia following several years of training athletes in Chicago.
"I think Derek's fame is going to be an unbelievable recruiting tool," Primeau added. "He will couple that with athlete success and that's a very potent mix of ingredients."
In addition to Evely, Primeau and lead assistant
Steve Weiler will also once again benefit from the tireless work of a dedicated group of volunteer coaches.
"The volunteer coaches we have act like they're fulltime employees here in terms of the hours and the commitment and dedication to our student-athletes. I'm just so thankful for Catherine Watkins, Elena Voloshin, Cristina Weir, Dave Douglas and Evan Dunfee; what other staff can boast an Olympic medallist (Dunfee) and a volunteer in Derek Evely who has produced Olympic medallists? Those are results that fulltime employees at major universities garner, not people who are here on volunteer based honorariums. I'm just super happy and proud of them."
The hard work for the coaches and student-athletes alike is already well underway. The 2024 Cross Country season officially begins this weekend with the T-Birds entered in the Vancouver Spirit Run on Sunday afternoon at Jericho Beach.
The 2024 Canada West Cross Country Championships will see the UBC women contend for a sixth straight conference title in southern Alberta late next month while the men will run for a fourth straight banner. Both teams will then turn their focus to the U SPORTS National Championship race set for Kelowna on Saturday, November 9.
2023-24 T-Birds Women's Recruit Class
Grace Beach – Endurance (Cochrane, Alta. – Food, Nutrition & Health)
Laura Beghin – Endurance (Wisconsin Dells, Wis. – Masters, Forest Management)
Ria Gill – Endurance (Delta, B.C. - Kinesiology)
Rachel McDonald – Endurance (Surrey, B.C. – Science)
Zoe Unger – Endurance (Abbotsford, B.C. – Kinesiology)
Lauren Curtis – Hammer Throw (Maple Ridge, B.C. – Arts)
Chantelle Dass – Race Walk (Vancouver, B.C.)
Bridgette Hansen – High Jump (Vancouver, B.C. – Arts)
Rhiannon Henley – Race Walk (North Vancouver, B.C.)
Haley Martin – Hurdles (Nanaimo, B.C. – Land & Food Systems)
Katelyn Putz – Hammer Throw (Nanaimo, B.C. – Environmental Science)
Robin Rohu – Hurdles (Burnaby, B.C.)
Lucia Rueppell – Pole Vault (Edmonton, Alta. – Forestry)
Debbie Suleman – Sprints (Oakville, Ont. – Science)
Audrey Vennesland – Heptathlon (North Vancouver, B.C.)
Grace Wong – Race Walk (Vancouver, B.C. – Arts)
2023-24 T-Birds Men's Recruit Class
Calvin Brain – Endurance (Boulder, Col. – Science)
Steven Brittain – Endurance (Surrey, B.C. – Arts)
Marty Bajarunas – Javelin (Port Moody, B.C. – Applied Science)
Jordan Dickhof – Javelin (Langley, B.C.)
Connor Hengstler – Throws (Duncan, B.C. – Computer Science)
Will Lesyna – Endurance (Mukilteo, Wash. – Sauder School of Business)
Kai Martland – Endurance (Vancouver, B.C. – Kinesiology)
Samuel McGee – Decathlon (Vancouver, B.C. – Arts)
Lowell Solmes – Race Walk (Vancouver, B.C. – Arts)
Paul Ude – Jumps (Surrey, B.C. – Applied Science)
Kayden U-Ming – Javelin (Courtenay, B.C. – Urban Forestry)
Rian Wilson – Endurance (St. Catharines, Ont. – Sauder School of Business)
