VANCOUVER – Following an exceptionally strong first day of the 2025 UBC Open Saturday, the Thunderbirds closed out the two-day home meet with another three 'A' Standard NAIA National Championship qualifying results while also putting themselves in a very strong position to continue to push forward as the season progresses.

"Just an outstanding weekend for us," said UBC head coach, Laurier Primeau following his squad's only home meet of the season. "Watching the endurance runners and the walkers open their year and then for many of the power-speed athletes to get their second opportunity and to be able to do it in front of friends and family I think was pretty cool."

Having already achieved 'A' Standard with a personal best last weekend to open up the season, two-time defending NAIA women's pole vault champion Sonya Urbanowicz set a new meet record Sunday with a winning height of 3.95 metres.
Maximilien Filion crushed the men's 3000 metre steeplechase to set a new meet record with a personal best time of 9:00.14. The sophomore's first place finish also now stands as the new number one time in the NAIA this season by more than 23 seconds.



Senior Elysse Fleming set a new personal best in the women's steeplechase, her time of 10:42.73 well clear of 'A' Standard for this season's new number one ranking as she'll now have the opportunity to compete in the event at nationals for a second straight season.

Sarah Pimblett won the UBC Open heptathlon with a final point total of 3973, a new personal best in the seven-event challenge. Finishing first in the high jump and second in shot put on Saturday, the junior from Medicine Hat, Alberta took first in long jump (4.94m) and second in javelin (27.75m). Alessandra Ionescu-Zanetti won the final event, the 800 metres, with a time of 2:42.31 to finish second among the eight competitors with 3676 points. Freshman Audrey Vennesland finished sixth with a total of 2796.

Freshman T-Bird Samuel McGee won the decathlon with 4760 points, currently the 22^nd highest total in the NAIA this season.

"It's always challenging to do the heptathlon and decathlon this early in the season with the conditions that aren't optimal," said Primeau. "And yet, I thought our athletes did a really good job. I'm super impressed with Sam McGee as a freshman. For Sarah who's already got 'A' Standard in the high jump to also win the heptathlon, I thought that was pretty cool so I think they're getting ready for that multi-event championship and to put some points on the board for the conference team title a couple weeks in advance of the overall conference championship."



Junior T-Bird William Kizell won the men's discus throw with a new meet record of 51.05 metres.

All told, the results from not just this weekend's UBC Open but also last week's season opening meets in Arizona have showed the promise the defending champion UBC women's team has for the rest of 2025.

"I think our women have demonstrated they are a perennial power and they did that again this weekend. We are absolutely not overconfident because we know that other teams are excellent and that we can't control what they do and how well they're coached and how they perform, but we can control ourselves and I think we certainly have the tools as a team to be vying for effectively a fifth straight national championship."

The men's team's youth has impressed with early encouraging results. Freshman Kayden U-Ming putting up the NAIA's top javelin throw so far this season on Saturday along with a pair of Lyle Lo number one ranked results in long jump and triple jump were further augmented Sunday.



"Because of those results, as well as Max today in the steeplechase and Tyler (Wilson) and Lowell (Solmes) in the racewalk, I may have underestimated where that men's team is nationally. What I thought might be a little bit more of a rebuilding year with two of those guys in Lowell and Kayden being first years, we wouldn't have expected the results we got from them already. Along with the experience of our senior athletes like Dylan (Uhrich), maybe we're going to be able to vie for a podium spot on the men's team side as well."

The Thunderbirds will be sticking relatively close to home over the next two weekends before heading back to California in the middle of April. Next up for the blue and gold will be next weekend's Simon Fraser High Performance meet followed by Trinity Western's Battle of Sparta in Langley on April 12.

UBC Open Results