Liz Gleadle won four NAIA javelin titles while a member of the UBC track and field team
VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds track and field program will have representation in both the Pan American and Parapan American Games this summer in Lima, Peru.
Three alumni – all NAIA champions during their time at UBC – will compete for Canada at the Pan Am Games, which are underway. Conner Pierce, a current member of the NAIA outdoor championship-winning Thunderbirds team, will race for the United States at the Parapan Am Games, which run August 23 to September 1.
Liz Gleadle, the NAIA record holder in the javelin (56.09 meters), and the only woman to win the event four times at the outdoor national championship meet (2007-10), is going for her second-consecutive Pan Am gold. She took first at the 2015 in Toronto with a best throw of 62.83 meters.
High jumper Mike Mason is heading to his third Pan American Games. He won silver in 2015. During his university career, Mason won the outdoor high jump title three years in a row, 2006-08, setting the NAIA record of 2.22 meters in 2006. He was named the Outstanding Male Performer at the 2008 NAIA meet.
Evan Dunfee is in Peru to defend the 2015 Pan Am gold medal he won at the 20-kilometer distance (1 hour and 23:06 minutes). Dunfee won the NAIA 5,000-m race walk title in 2011, posting a meet record time of 20:02.25, which still stands.
Pan Am track and field events, with the exception of the marathon, which was run last week, begin this Sunday.
The Parapan Am track and field competition takes place Aug. 24-31 in Lima.
Conner Pierce, who completed his first year as a member of UBC, will race the 100 meters in the T36 category for the United States. He is currently the world’s 21st-ranked runner, and the top-rated American, in the event with a season-best time of 13.34 seconds.