VANCOUVER – With the main Cascade Collegiate Conference meet still several weeks away, the UBC Thunderbirds made their mark at the conference’s Multi-Event Championships Thursday and Friday hosted by Eastern Oregon University.
Highlighted by a personal best and a new conference championship record in the 100 metre hurdles, junior T-Bird Hassy Fashina-Bombata finished second overall in the heptathlon with 4867 points. Teammate Rebecca Dutchak also had a strong performance finishing fifth with 4494 points, both easily surpassing the NAIA standard for next month’s National Championships in Gulf Shores, Alabama.
“I’m really proud of Hassy, Rebecca, Egidio (Cantarella), and Dean (Ciarniello),” said UBC Head Coach Laurier Primeau. “So many things have to go right to have success over two days of the multi-events. For three of them, they hadn’t competed decathlon or heptathlon before this year, and no one had attempted one over the two years of the pandemic. Hassy and Rebecca had great days and this will be a nice springboard toward Nationals.”
Egidio Cantarella and Dean Ciarniello both competed in the decathlon with some strong performances on day one. Cantarella finished second in the 400 metres while Ciarniello managed a third place finish in the 100 metres.
In addition to Fashina-Bombata’s record setting hurdles mark, Dutchak finished first in long jump with a top attempt of 5.51 metres.
The Cascade Conference Campionships are set for May 13 and 14 in Ashland, Oregon with the NAIA National Championships beginning two weeks later in Alabama where the ‘Birds will compete for the first time since earning both the men’s and women’s titles in 2019.
