Maple Ridge track and field star Lauren Curtis has had a great start to her sophomore season with the UBC Thunderbirds, and has already qualified for nationals.
The thrower took second in the hammer in the UBC Open last month, with her first attempt on the day being her best at 51.01 metres. There were athletes from more than a dozen schools and athletic clubs from Canada and the U.S. at the meet, held at Point Grey’s Rashpal Dhillon Oval.
Then the Maple Ridge secondary grad was back on the podium in the Thunderbirds’ first trip south of the border. She competed at the ALTIS Spring Tune-Up in Phoenix, Arizona on Thursday, and Curtis won the women’s hammer throw with a new personal best of 54.20 metres, surpassing NAIA ‘A’ standard to automatically qualify for next month’s national championship.
Then the squad then made their way into Nevada for the UNLV Rebel Elite Invitational, where the T-Birds took full advantage of the Las Vegas sunshine to secure even more outstanding results, and Curtis was again bringing home medals, as she took bronze.
The ‘Birds will get a chance to compete much closer to home this weekend at the annual Battle of Sparta, hosted by Trinity Western at Langley’s McLeod Athletic Park on Saturday, April 11.
It’ll mark the final meet north of the 49th parallel this season, as the blue and gold will be headed back south to California the following weekend.