Heredi wins 600m as Lancer women claim Team Challenge title

Ella Heredi captured the women’s 600m title on Saturday at the Team Challenge meet at the Dennis Fairall Fieldhouse, helping the Windsor Lancers finish first overall on the women’s side.

Heredi won the race in 1:32.95, earning seven points for Windsor. Ottawa Gee-Gees runner Sophia McIntyre finished second in 1:34.31, good for five points.

Following the race, the second-year athlete told Powerplay Sports she knew she would need to take control early after several runners she typically competes against scratched.

“I kind of knew that I had to take a chance and take it out on my own,” Heredi said. “I feel like having the 4x800 (relay Friday), where it was kind of like running it solo, really helped with that.”

Heredi said her main goal was simply to improve on last week’s performance.

“My goal was to run faster than I did last week, and I ended up doing that, so I was really happy about that,” she said. “Now I’m in a pretty good spot in the U SPORTS rankings, so looking forward to going to OUA's, hopefully being in a better heat and just hoping to secure my position in USports.”

While she typically prefers to sit in rather than lead, Heredi said she’s been working on becoming more confident racing from the front.

“I usually never do that,” she said about leading the pack. “But this year I’ve been trying to work up my confidence and be more comfortable taking it out if I have to. That was one of the first races where I did that and it worked out for me so I'm really happy with that.”

A Windsor native and Massey Secondary graduate, Heredi only began focusing seriously on track in high school after the pandemic disrupted other sports.

“I started doing track in high school, grade 10, coming out of COVID,” she said. “Before that I played basketball in grade school, but everything was closed. We were still able to practice outside, and I really enjoyed it.”

Heredi said what’s kept her in the sport is the balance between individual and team competition.

“I like how it’s an individual sport but a team sport at the same time,” she said. “I like working toward individual goals, but with the relays, having a team that's with you while you're competing in your individual events, I like that a lot.”

Heredi also helped the 4x800 relay team break the meet record Friday night leading the way and perhaps inspiring other teams to keep up as four other teams also eclipsed the previous standard. "We kind of just told each other to take the risk and not race anyone else’s race,” Heredi said. “Each of our legs ran it solo, and it ended up working out.”

A club meet is scheduled at the university on February 15 before the Lancers head to Toronto for the OUA championships February 20th.