For more than a few years now, the Laurentian Voyageurs Indoor Track team has provided ideal accommodation for members of a very successful L.U. cross-country program to continue their winter training maintenance, setting themselves up nicely for summer road/trail workouts and perhaps a handful of competitions on the track.
That element has definitely not disappeared, as women’s XC standout Pascale Gendron prepares to leave this week for an indoor meet in Boston, one which welcomes some 200 athletes in the 3000m distance alone to the fastest track in North America – a wonderful setting for a new PB.
And yes, Voyageurs’ coaches Dick Moss and Darren Jermyn have long welcomed aboard various other track and field athletes looking to build a base in the midst of the long, cold northern Ontario winters, a venture made easier by the construction of the Laurentian Fieldhouse a decade or so ago.
But the 2022-2023 season has a different feel to it, for sure, for the Blue and Gold. It’s those outliers, if you will, that have garnered much of the attention – and deservedly so.
“The indoor season is definitely a continuation for the cross-country types, the middle distance folks who still run the 1500m/3000m after the cross-country season,” said Jermyn at practice earlier this week, the OUA Championships just over two weeks away (February 24th/25th in Windsor).
“Now we have a full group of sprinters and we are trying to develop a larger jumping group with both Jim and Ryan Taylor as coaches.”
The results have been more than just a tad impressive.
“On our sprint side, we are doing extremely well,” said Jermyn. “Tristan Routhier is by far our biggest surprise of the year. He’s taken a third of a second off his 60m time in less than a year. That’s significant. That’s like taking 30 or 40 seconds off a middle distance race.”
A 21 year-old second year Architecture student from rural Québec, Routhier brings an interesting background to his newfound success on the track, having played competitive soccer in his youth and truthfully only running for “fun”, as he said, through his high-school years and at CEGEP de l’Outaouais.
In fact, badminton outranked track and field in his athletic priority listing prior to Routhier arriving in Sudbury. Clearly not recruited in any way, shape or form, the young Francophone simply made a call as he settled in to his home away from home, curious as to the varsity sport offerings at Laurentian, opting to simply make his way out to an open outdoor tryout in the fall of 2021.
His athletic base gave Jermyn and company something to work with – but the 2022/2023 breakthrough comes by virtue of really getting a handle on the technical aspects of the sprint.
“When I was running, I used to run very stressed, with my shoulders up high, up to my head,” said Routhier. “Now, I am more relaxed.”
With that, his time has dropped to a best of 7.03 (he would love to break the seven second plateau) – yet the 300m distance might offer even more potential. “Because I am tall, it’s difficult for me to have a good start (in the 60m) – I am trying to catch up after that. This year, I tried the 300m, which is new for me, but it’s going pretty well.”
I would say so.
With a best time of 35.72, Routhier is poised to break the school record of 35.43, possibly before provincial championships. Despite his hectic academic schedule, the hard-working young man is not about to shelve his athletic dreams, not with this current upward trajectory.
“The difference between last year and this year is really big,” he said. “For me, it’s mostly mental. I’ve had some injuries in the past, so sometimes I was scared that those injuries would come back. And I wasn’t used to hitting the gym (weight-room) before. Now, getting a workout with Jim and Ryan, it’s really good stuff.”
“I can feel the difference.”
If he is successful in establishing a new L.U. track standard, it will mark the second record of the season for the Voyageurs crew. Masters student and CFL quarterback Tre Ford (who happens to be married to CND graduate Anika Nadeau) posted a time of 6.94 in just his third meet with the team.
“Tre has come in and been a great addition to our team,” said Jermyn. “He fits in perfectly well, works hard in practice, is very coachable and performs very well – and his warm-up is really impressive. You can see him mentally getting ready. I think his professional sport background lends to that and I think it’s a great thing for his teammates to see.”
In addition to the upcoming meet in Boston, the L.U. Indoor Track team is slated to participate in the Fred Foot Invitational at the University of Toronto on February 17th. All in all, it’s been a very nice return to normalcy for coaches and athletes alike.
“We’ve had really good support from the athletic department,” stressed Jermyn. “Support for us to get back training, support for us to have access to the facilities, support for us to travel – and we’re happy with that.”
“Obviously, the school has been through some tough times but our team has really kept whole – and we’re excited by that.”
And the whole, it seems, is a whole lot more than might have been the case in the past.
