Canadians at NCAA championships seeded for success

Brandon McBride of Windsor, Ont., is poised to challenge for his second National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) 800m title, this time outdoors, at the upcoming championships this week.

The sophomore (second year in Canada) Mississippi State student-athlete hasn’t lost an individual race to another collegiate athlete since February and is the top see in the upcoming NCAA outdoor championships in his main event, the 800m.

McBride already has a long resume of athletic success, including Canadian junior records in both the 400m and 800m and plenty of Ontario and national championship golds.

Racing the 800m alongside McBride will be Keffri Neal of Surrey, B.C., who goes to school at the University of Kentucky.

In the longer distances, Olympian Mohammed Ahmed will be competing in the both the 5,000m and 10,000m championship races. The ninth-place finisher at last summer’s world championships over 10,000m is seeded further back from the top runners than fans may have expected, but the St. Catharines, Ont., native has proven himself in big races before. Ahmed is a student at the University of Wisconsin.

Univeristy of North Carolina sophmore Elizabeth Whelan ran a big personal best at her east regional to qualify for the 1,500m championship and sits as the fifth seed. She is from Toronto and was a multiple-time Ontario high school champion before graduating.

Annie Leblanc of Repentigny, Que., will race the women’s 800m for the University of Oregon.

Moving into the sprints, Aaron Brown, who recently broke the national 200m record, is perhaps Canada’s best shot at a double-gold performance at the meet. Brown, an Olympian, in the top seed in the 200m with his new national record of 20.16 and is the third seed in the 100m with a 10.12 performance. He holds a 10.05 PB from last year.

The meet is set to start in Eugene, Ore., Wednesday and will run until Saturday. A full schedule can be found here.