It was a historic weekend for the Brock Badgers track and field program.
The Badgers earned a school-record three medals at the 2026 U SPORTS Track and Field Championships at the James Daly Fieldhouse in Winnipeg.
Chloe Zaraska followed up her Ontario University Athletics (OUA) gold medal performance with a victory in the high jump at the U SPORTS Championships.
Clearing 1.73 metres on her first attempt, Zaraska tied Lara Denbow of the Manitoba Bisons to claim co-first place, securing the first-ever women's U SPORTS track and field medal in Brock history.
"I'm so proud of Chloe and happy for her," said head coach Jonathan Younker. "She came to Brock for Nursing and had no intention of using her last year of eligibility. But she missed training with a purpose and really bought into the team culture, staying focused on improving and winning her first OUA and U SPORTS gold medals. To come from the premier program in the country (Guelph), set personal bests and achieve what she has accomplished here at Brock shows her resilience and that this program can help driven student-athletes succeed."
In the men's pole vault, Michael Ivanov repeated as champion, successfully clearing 4.90m on his first attempt.
It was a tightly contested battle at the 4.90m height as Liam West of the York Lions also cleared the bar but did so after missing on his first try.
"It would be easy to look at Michael's ongoing success and think it comes easy for him or that it's commonplace, but that misses the hours of work in the gym, on the track and travelling to York to train at the Toronto Track and Field Centre, as well as the long hours balancing school and sport," Younker said. "Michael is easily the most driven student-athlete I've ever met. Even when he doesn't have his best vaulting day, he doesn't get flustered and just finds a way to win."
Rounding out the gold-medal performances was Rémi Ouellette, who recorded a personal-best throw of 9.08m to win his second consecutive gold medal in the para shot put F41 ambulatory event.
The record-breaking throw came on his fourth of six total attempts.
"We saw a different side of Rémi this season," Younker said. "Coming off last year's national championships, he was selected for a national team training camp and had a plan and a path to set personal bests and national records. His first throw set a personal best, which he went on to break multiple times, and he did it with both a figurative and literal roar."
In the team standings, the Badgers placed 18th on the women's side and 20th on the men's.
The future looks bright for head coach Jonathan Younker and the track and field program as they look to build on the momentum from this historic weekend.
