MNO citizen wins gold and breaks records

Submitted by: Robin Pilon

Chantel Pilon
Chantel Pilon holding her OUA All Star Award.

Competing in her final Ontario University Athletics Championship, Métis Nation of Ontario (MNO) citizen Chantel Pilon went out in style, winning the gold medal in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) women’s pentathlon event at Toronto’s York University in February, 2014. The OUA gold was Waterloo’s first in track and field since 2003.

Pilon also represented the University of Waterloo Warriors at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport Track and Field Championships at the University of Alberta in Edmonton where she broke her own varsity record scoring 3,494 points. She ran a personal best of 2:18:00 finishing first in the 800m race to place her fifth overall in the women’s pentathlon. Pilon then lead the 4 x 400m women’s relay team to a new UW varsity record and sixth place Canadian Interuniversity Sport finish with a time of 3:50:90 battering the old record by nearly one second set back in 2002. Her efforts earned her a Waterloo Warrior of the Weekend Award and for three consecutive weeks, the Warrior’s Athlete of the Week honours.

Pilon was named Captain of the University of Waterloo Warrior Track and Field Team in 2012, a position she held for three consecutive years. She is a three-time University of Waterloo Warrior Most Valuable Player (MVP) Track and Field recipient, a two-time University of Waterloo President’s Athlete Academic Honour Roll Recipient, a two-time Academic All-Canadian and an OUA First Team All-Star.

Pilon graduates from the University of Waterloo this spring with an Honours Co-op Degree in Recreation and Business. She will start her master’s degree at the University of Waterloo in September 2014 where she will compete unattached and help coach the Warriors track and field team.