Queen's Distance Track's Jude Wheeler-Dee captured the gold medal in the Men's 1,000M at the U SPORTS Track & Field Championship in Saskatoon, Sask. Friday night.

In his first event of the championship, Wheeler-Dee crossed the line first with a time of 2:24.59, following up on his gold medal in the same event at the OUA Track & Field Championship two weeks earlier.

"It's definitely surreal," Wheeler-Dee said after the race. "Something that [Queen's Distance Track Head Coach] Mark [Bomba] and I had talked about, obviously wanted to keep a level head going in. It's crazy, just executing and being the first across the line there, it was pretty emotional."
  Wheeler-Dee added that he had discussed a plan for the race with Bomba, and made his move with 200 metres to go to ultimately grab the win.

"Mark and I had chatted and we knew some guys definitely wanted to go out a bit quicker. So that first 200, I wasn't really a surprise to see that we were moving at a pretty solid pace. And then I just really tried to settle in there. I didn't need to make any moves right away because one km is short, but you still have a lot of time, you still five laps, and I just tried to stay as relaxed as possible until I felt like it was time to make a move. I knew once I went, I couldn't look back. So with 200 to go, I decided to go from there. Definitely a bit nervous, definitely thinking it would suck if I saw someone come up and pass me but, it was really good."

Wheeler-Dee still has one race to go at the U SPORTS Track & Field Championship, the Men's 1,500M on Saturday, where he will look to join Queen's history with only Dave Mather and Bob McCormack as Queen's athletes to have won the coveted 1,000M and 1,500M double.

"At the moment it's just full recovery. So that's getting food in and having a cold shower and making sure I'm resting up the legs. And then I'm definitely going to chat with Mark a little bit. The goal tomorrow is also obviously to compete and we'll just kind of go in there and take it lap by lap.

Watch a replay of the race:  

U SPORTS GOLD!!! 🥇

Jude Wheeler-Dee ran a 2:24.59 1000-metre and takes home the victory at the @USPORTSTF Championship in Saskatoon. Way to go, Jude!#ChaGheill | #GoGaelsGo pic.twitter.com/xFjAhpLWa8

— Queen's Gaels (@queensgaels) March 11, 2023

Later on Friday, Queen's Women's 4x800m team placed ninth at the U SPORTS Track & Field Championships. The team of Olivia Hendrikx, Madelyn Bullock, Gillian Porter, and Elizabeth Vroom ran just off their new Queen's school record of 9:09.66 with a final time of 9:11.40. This was the first Queen's relay team to qualify for the U SPORTS national Championships since 2013.