On Saturday, January 25th, Queen's Cross Country/Track and Field Alumni Bob McCormack had his 1500m time (3:44.84) from the 1978 OUA Championships beat by two seconds, and the runner, Gaels Jude Wheeler-Dee (Con-Ed), wrote himself into Queen's Gaels history books as the man who beat the almost five-decade long unbreakable school record. Wheeler-Dee ran a 3:42.53 race to do so, simultaneously beating the Tomlinson Fieldhouse facility record (3:43.21) set in 2015 by Université Laval athlete Charles Philibert-Thiboutot.  Wheeler-Dee sat down to discuss his great achievement, goals and training for the season, and all things track and field. Ecstatic that after all these years someone broke his record, Bob McCormack comments on Wheeler-Dee's timestamp in Gaels Track and Field history and reflects fondly on his own memories of training at Queen's.  

The 28th annual McGill Team Challenge was not necessarily a pivotally-planned moment for Wheeler-Dee's season, as it was no more a step-stone to the upcoming events: the Boston University Invite, OUA Championships, and then to the Mecca: the U SPORTS Championships hosted at the University of Windsor.  The previous weekend produced success for Wheeler-Dee as he topped the Gaels team record, beat the facility and meet records, for his 3000m race with the time 8:03.49 at the uOttawa Winter Invite, making him one of Gaels Varsity Student-Athletes of the Week alongside his teammate Caleigh Pribaz (Kinesiology).

"Run free" Gaels head coach Mark Bomba said to Wheeler-Dee moments before stepping foot on the track he would only minutes later break McCormack's record on. Wheeler-Dee recalls coach Bomba encouraging him to go after the facility record. "I asked [before the race] to go through the first half of the race around 2 minutes which would have been a 3:45 pace so I was definitely okay going out a bit slower [first 800m] than ramping it up in the latter half of the run." The 'ramping-up' that Wheeler-Dee discusses would bring him to victory eight seconds ahead of the heat. 

With 200m to go, Wheeler-Dee's thoughts were left on the track other than hearing coach Bomba call-out: "'you need a 28 or 29', and I just went as quick as I could." It was then the Kingston native humbly remarks "I thought I could do that." With the career he had run so far, Jude knew that was very achievable.  

When asked to comment on his historical record meeting its match by Wheeler-Dee, Bob McCormack, a Queen's Medical School Alumni and orthopedic consultant and surgeon for Team Canada through 13 Olympic games, exclaimed "The short answer is, it's about time. I'm really happy because Jude came close last year ... .  In one sense it was cool to have a little tie there, but records are meant to be broken so I'm really happy." McCormack compared his 1500m race to that of Wheeler-Dee's, noting that when he ran, "it was a very close race with another person, so I had someone doing a lot of the work for me while Jude did it all himself, so it's an impressive run."  This is exactly one of the points Wheeler-Dee offered to me about his goals for the season.  He explained that when you find yourself in the front, "you only really have yourself to push, so the last couple of races have been important in working through that.  Being able to change gears when it's starting to hurt and no one's there to push you to go faster."  

The two Queen's track runners are no stranger to each other as they met at the Queen's Track and Field Hall of Fame dinner in August of 2023.  Wheeler-Dee recalls meeting McCormack for the first time after an alumni connected them: "I fangirled. I got so nervous because I had heard so much about him" he seemed to recall quite fondly.  "It meant a lot.  Mark especially puts a big emphasis on the history of the sport and the team's history."  McCormack, as humble about his accomplishments as Jude, evidently told the young runner that "it was kinda embarrassing that this record is still around, and he wanted it to be broken," to which Wheeler-Dee answered to me a year and a half after the dinner: "And so I did it." A modest response for the gravity of his accomplishment.  

McCormack has maintained an enthusiastic interest in the program and its athletes.  The Gaels alumni recalls from recent conversations with coach Bomba, "not only is [Jude] an outstanding athlete, he works really hard.  And that's what it takes to be successful. Not only talent but drive."  The quote "hard work with talent will beat talent without hard work every time" was emphasized by McCormack when reflecting with pride on the young athlete's accomplishments. 

As per Wheeler-Dee's perspective on his race, he states the record "let me know that I'm doing the right things at the moment.  You can get doubts pretty easily, so it gives me a bit of confidence going into Boston knowing I can compete with whomever.  It's a motivator to keep going."  Wheeler-Dee is not quick to relish in his success though for he reveals "It's like a double-edged sword: I know that when I look back in five or ten years, it'll be surreal. Even the 1k record I got in my second year [2023 McGill Team Challenge, 1000m: 2:22.15]. I look back now and think 'wow that's pretty crazy', but in the moment I'm just trying to stay focused on what the big goals of the season are. Never letting early success bog that or make me complacent.  Gotta keep on moving." What are these big goals you may ask?  National titles at the upcoming 2025 U SPORTS Championship.  And what does this mean to the record-breaker? Staying level-headed, keeping the thrill, fun, and perhaps a sense of youthful ambition, in the sport and the competition.  "It goes back to being the kid who wanted to be the fastest in the class.  That was always so fun for me and I try to keep that enjoyment of running at a new level."

Wheeler-Dee loosely references Charlie Chaplin: "Up close life is a tragedy but at a distance it's a comedy." He reflects that the quote, which is not necessarily directly related to running, has imprinted a sense of living in the moment in his mentality towards the track season.  "It's super easy to get wrapped up in the world you're in. When you're in it everything is stressful. I'm always trying to take that step back and realize I'm doing this because I want to; I race because I want to race, I train because I want to train."  For Wheeler-Dee, running is about passion and joy, and here folks is how the titles, broken-records, and success has and will continue to occur for him paired with his dedicated training and hard work.

In meeting with both McCormack and Wheeler-Dee separately, their reflections on beating the record co-aligned with the importance of team unity and strength.  Wheeler-Dee attributes his success in his track career here at Queen's to the people around him. "People is huge, I lean on my family, my teammates, a lot." Living in a student-house with 11 other Queen's cross/track runners contributes to Jude's day-to-day drive; "it makes it really easy to get out of the door everyday." "Having all that support is something I don't think I realized in the beginning but the more I've progressed the more I've leaned on them [family, friends, teammates]." Much of Jude's achievements he further credits to coach Mark Bomba who has been with the team since 2021. "I could talk for hours about Mark" exclaimed Wheeler-Dee, "having a coach like Mark who's huge on development… and setting realistic goals" has aided the Gaels star in attaining his notable success through four seasons.  For McCormack, he recalls winning the 1000m (the same day he ran his record 1500m) still on cloud-nine from the previous win: "I wasn't even motivated after the first win… The team dynamic really helped a lot, it helped me run fast during the race." McCormack vividly remembers the power of having support by his teammates stationed at every 50m along the track, cheering him on to the end which brought home a second title for the Gaels 1978 team.  Reflecting on this moment, McCormack made the powerful statement of "Even though it's an individual sport, there's a real sense of team."  Characteristics of support and unity in the Queen's Gaels Cross Country/Track and Field team have continued through five decades being a guiding force to athletes such as McCormack and Wheeler-Dee in their moments of glory on the track.  

With another record held by Wheeler-Dee under his humble belt, the runner looks to the 2025 Boston Invite this up-coming weekend where he will be racing in the 3000m and 1000m competitions.  Jude will travel to Boston alongside select members of the team who will be racing for OUA time-standards as the OUA Championships are rounding the bend scheduled only two weeks after.

Image Credits (left to right): Jason Beck (BC Sports Hall of Fame), Emma Dagenais, Katherine Taylor