The York University Lions track and field team had a strong opening day at the OUA championships, winning six medals at the St. Denis Centre in Windsor, Ont., on Friday.
 
Both Lions teams sit in fifth place in the team standings, the same place they finished in last year.
 
The most impressive performance of the day came in the men's 60m hurdles, where Kayden Johnson ran a blazing fast 7.92 seconds to win the gold medal. The third-year athlete, also a running back on the Lions football team, already had the fastest time in the country heading into the meet and he lowered it by 0.19 seconds.
 
The day began with a bang as the Lions had two athletes reach the podium in the first event of the competition, the men's weight throw. Drew Erskine, who was seeded fourth before the championships, threw a big 15.87m on his final attempt to push himself into second place. Teammate Jonathan Raspanti was just behind him with a throw of 15.21m to win the bronze medal.
 
Holly Pitters, competing in her final conference meet and the winner of the last two OUA championships in the long jump, came up just short of her third straight title with a silver-medal showing in the event, finishing with a distance of 5.87m, just two centimetres behind the gold medallist. Rookie Leah Jones just missed out on a spot on the podium, finishing in fourth place with a jump of 5.56m.
 
Also picking up a silver medal was Christy Ihunaegbo in the 300m. The fourth-year runner, York's new school record holder after a tremendous time earlier this season, crossed the finish line in a time of 39.01 seconds.
 
Nicholas Fyffe, the three-time reigning OUA triple jump champion, picked up a medal in his other event, the long jump, with a third-place finish thanks to a jump of 7.04m on his final try. Teammate Placide Ilunga finished seventh in the event.
 
The Lions had a number of other athletes competing on Day 1 who earned points in the team standings. Like Jones, Xavier Jehovah just missed out on a medal in the 300m with a fourth-place finish while running in the second-last heat. Caroline Ritchie was fifth in the pole vault and Kaitlin Brooks finished sixth in the shot put.

Tracey Edwards finished in fifth place in the pentathlon thanks in part to winning the shot put portion of the competition, and rookie Rasheeda Gurley was just behind her in sixth spot and won the long jump event.
 
Wrapping up the top-eight finishes on the day was the men's 4x800m relay team of Joshua Ching, Abdiaziz Ali, Brock Martin and Ali Ghadghoni, which ran to a sixth-place finish.
 
Johnson, Erskine, Ihunaegbo and Pitters were all named OUA all-stars for their performances.
 
All six Lions runners in the 60m heats qualified for the semifinals, which will take place on Saturday morning, with the finals set for later in the day. Those six athletes, as well as many others, will be looking to continue to add to the hardware haul on the final day of competition at the championships.