Financial woes aside, Laurentian
University has long prided itself on the diversity of
its students and staff.
And while the trio of student-athletes
who will don the Voyageur colours at the upcoming OUA
Indoor Track & Field Championships being hosted this
weekend by the York Lions might not represent a complete
microcosm of the institution itself, their stories are
indeed most unique and quite varied.
Freshman Kristen Mrozewski could well
be the most high profile name coming in, the Lo-Ellen
Park graduate actually recruited to the school. Only problem
was that she was recruited as a hockey netminder, committing
to the program that was disbanded before the first year
Nursing student ever took to the ice in an OUA game.
Thankfully, the well-spoken 18 year-old
is hardly a one-trick pony, having qualified for OFSAA
championships both as a cross-country runner and in track
and field, notably in the 300m hurdles, during her tenure
as a Knight. When her L.U. hockey teammates dispersed,
Mrozewski pivoted.
“At first, it hurt, those first
few days – but then I started thinking about whether
I wanted to move away from home to play hockey, or do
I want to stay here,” said the talented teenager
who recently placed second in the 600m at the 38th Annual
Don Wright Team Challenge in London, covering the distance
in a time of 1:40.74.
“This is what I want, to run and
stay at Laurentian.”
For the first time in her life, Mrozewski
can enjoy much more of a tunnel-visioned approach to her
athletic pursuits. “Honestly, I had no idea what
to expect coming in; I had never really totally focused
on running,” she said. “I had always been
half on running, the other half of me in hockey or soccer.”
“Now that I’m in it, I’m
really enjoying it, really happy with how I’ve been
running, really excited for the next three to four years.”
And for as much as she was a product of
the track and field factory that is Lo-Ellen Park Secondary
School, Mrozewski still had to deal with the inevitable
bump up, as training demands increased.
“Mr (Colin) Ward (head track coach
at LOE) prepared us really well,” she admitted.
“He kind of bases his workouts on the workouts that
Darren (Jermyn – LU track coach) uses. I would say
that the biggest jump was the length of the workouts,
going from doing maybe a 20-30 minute hard workout to
going hard for over an hour.”
For his part, Alexandre Noel de Tilly
flew much further under the track and field radar. A better
than average SDSSAA competitor, the now 21 year-old fourth
year Bio-Medical Biology major featured a more modest
resume of high-school accomplishments as he took to the
track at Laurentian in the winter of 2018-2019.
What he may have lacked in glowing accolades
as a sprinter, however, the former Collège Notre-Dame
Alouette more than made up for through his burning desire
to draw every last bit of potential from his athletic
base. That drive came in especially handy these past two
years.
“Obviously, it was challenging to
keep working out, especially when there is a lot of solo
work,” said Noel de Tilly. “It’s just
not as easy to keep putting in the work when you’re
working alone.”
After reaching the OUA standard in year
one by the skin of his teeth (time of 7.39 seconds in
the 60m just barely squeezed him through), the aspiring
student of dentistry has continued to shave off those
valuable hundredths of a second, posting a personal best
time of 7.28 earlier this month.
Given that he has embraced the need for
technical excellence as a sprinter, much of his improvement
these days comes from enhancing the athlete that he is.
“I was lucky enough to buy myself a set of weights,
so I’ve got 275 pounds to work with at home,”
he stated. “Strength training is huge for a sprinter,
to build the strength and explosiveness you need.”
“You’re not doing the traditional
body building work – but for things like stepping
out of the blocks faster, there are things that really
drive the power, things like Olympic lifting.”
For someone as thoughtful as the young
man who expects to compete in his final OUA race this
coming weekend, there is a sense of irony in running the
quickest of events. “It’s such a short race
that you don’t have much time to think about much,”
acknowledged Noel de Tilly. “There’s not much
that goes through your mind.”
“There’s an incredible amount
of tunnel vision. From the blocks, I kind of go empty-minded,
just listening for the gun. Then I go and maybe mid-race,
I might give myself a cue to kick my butt to help drive
my knees.”
And if all of that comes together as planned,
Noel de Tilly would be thrilled with one final PB at York.
If Noel de Tilly is the epitome of the
slow and steady progression of L.U. Indoor Track, then
Marvin Zongo is the “burst on the scene like a ball
of fire” extreme. The native of Burkina Faso in
Western Africa first arrived at Laurentian in the fall
of 2020, but is competing at the U Sports level for the
very first time this year.
Talk about making an impact.
Throughout the past six weeks or so, the
young man who moved to Canada in 2020, making his way
initially to the Université de Hearst has been
ranked in the top five, nationally, in both the long jump
and the triple jump. With a background in soccer, karate
and judo, Zongo was definitely a late bloomer when it
came to the disciplines in which he now soars.
“When I was 16, I discovered track
through school,” he recalled. “I went to one
meet and performed well and the teacher wanted me to keep
going. Jumping was very natural to me.”
Apparently so.
In a matter of another year or two, the
Law & Justice major would earn his first selection
on the junior track and field team that would represent
his native land at the West African Junior Meet in Mali,
finishing third in the triple jump.
“That’s how it all started.”
Unfortunately, it stopped just as quickly,
the pandemic clearly global in its reach. “I wasn’t
able to train as normal, which was very challenging for
me – and I was actually very patient,” said
Zongo. “This time (during the pandemic), I learned
a lot about myself. It showed me how to be patient and
just wait for my time.”
While the jumps have generally been his
thing – Zongo even competed in the high jump, at
one point, in Africa – there is versatility to his
athleticism that serves him well. “If you want to
be able to jump, you have to build up some speed,”
he explained. “You need to do some 60m indoor, 100
metres.”
“Two hundred metres might be a little
long, but it’s good to have some endurance.”
As the only Laurentian athlete to have
qualified for the U Sports Championships, Zongo will head
off to New Brunswick a couple of weeks after provincials.
“I am going there to bring something back home,”
he said, referencing his current setting. “Sudbury
is very welcoming. I didn’t think I was going to
be this comfortable in Sudbury.”
That’s just part of what makes the
story of Marvin Zongo so unique – and so special.
“I want to see how far I can go
in the sport, in track, to push myself as far as I can.”
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