Rob Shaw
Men’s basketball
Fifth-year basketball forward Rob Shaw wrapped up his Queen’s career in style Feb. 25 in the Gaels’ OUA quarterfinal match against the University of Toronto. Shaw posted a team-high 12 points in the Gaels’ 68-43 road loss to the Varsity Blues.
Shaw said Toronto was a fitting place to end his career with the Gaels. “No end is a good end,” he said. “But I’m from Toronto, and if it wasn’t at Queen’s, it was a good place to go out. My family was there.”
This season was the most statistically impressive of Shaw’s career, as he totalled 126 points and 74 rebounds.
Shaw said the way the season ended was disheartening, but most teams would waver like the Gaels did if they suffered the same thinned roster; the team lost Jon Ogden and Simon and Travis Mitchell in the off-season and lost star forward Mitch Leger in January before slumping to a 1-10 regular-season finish
“We didn’t accomplish what we could have,” Shaw said.
Despite the disappointment of the early end, Shaw said he has much to be proud of. There were many memorable accomplishments during his five years with the team, he said, including capturing the Western tournament last season to earn their first national ranking, a triple-overtime victory over the University of South Alabama in an exhibition game this year and beating the University of Toronto in the playoffs in 2006.
Shaw entered the Queen’s basketball program at the age of 17 in 2004 under former head coach Oliver Stone. He said the progression of the team over the last few seasons under new head coach Rob Smart and new assistant coach Duncan Cowan is obvious.
“I came in with a class of guys that Ryan Hairsine and myself are the last of,” he said. “Now it’s a younger team that Rob Smart and Duncan Cowan have brought up through their system.”
When Shaw first came to the team he was balancing hockey and basketball. He said the coaching staff helped him focus on basketball and refine his skills.
“I’m a lot bigger,” he said. “I’ve matured so much over my time. To go from one of the youngest guys to one of the oldest was my big transition in the past two years.”
Shaw said Queen’s basketball has helped him mature not just as a player, but as a leader, adding that the benefits of being a Queen’s basketball player are vast.
“All the guys I’ve met through Queen’s basketball have turned out to be some of my best friends,” he said. “It provided me with other opportunities to get involved, like the Books and Basketball program where we go and meet with elementary school students.”
Shaw said he plans to go to law school in the fall. If he s Queen’s law program, he said it’s a good possibility that he’ll be helping out the basketball team in some form.
“It would be hard to be around all the guys and not be involved with basketball,” he said.
With his playing career over, Shaw said it’s important to cherish the time as a varsity athlete.
“You only have five years and after that you can’t play anymore,” he said. “I wish I could take one of those years back and do another one.”
—Jake Edminston
Leslie Sexton
Track and Field
With a silver medal in the 3,000 meters event at the provincial championships last Saturday, long-distance track athlete Leslie Sexton earned a ticket to Windsor to compete against the best varsity athletes in Canada at the CIS track and field championships March 12 to 14. Sexton said she was pleased with her performance.
“I ran a personal best and the medal showed me that I was ready to compete with the best in Ontario,” she said.
Although she won the same medal in the same race at the OUAs last year, Sexton said this second-place finish meant more to her because it came in the wake of a foot injury suffered during the cross country season that limited her ability to race this year.
“This year was a bit more special since there was a worry of whether or not I could compete in track after my injury.” Sexton said it still isn’t clear exactly what caused it.
“My injury is still a bit of a mystery,” she said. “After a race in October, my foot started to swell to the point where I couldn’t even fit it in a shoe. I underwent a lot of tests, X-rays and ultra-sounds, but they didn’t find anything out of the ordinary. I’m still not sure what it was.”
She said getting back into competitive form required a lot of patience and caution.
“I was groping around in the dark with it,” she said. “I had no idea when it would be alright and I could compete again.”
Sexton said her strong performance at the OUAs has increased confidence for the 3,000-meter race at the CIS championships.
“In a championship race, anything can happen,” she said. “My first goal at CIS is to run a personal best and to take home a medal at the same time. I think I have a decent chance at it this year.”
Beyond the CIS championships, Sexton said her attraction to long-distance running has provided her with the motivation to push herself even further in the future.
“I like being able to challenge myself on a regular basis,” she said. “After I graduate, I plan to continue to compete, definitely.”
Sexton said she plans to run even longer distances in the years to come.
“My ultimate goal would be to move up to the marathon; hopefully in the next five years,” she said.
That’s still a ways off for Sexton, though; she said she intends to return to Queen’s next year to enjoy her fifth season as a varsity athlete.
“Being on a varsity team has been the best part of my experience at Queen’s,” she said.
Despite her personal-best performance at the OUAs, Sexton said she expects to improve her race time in the near future.
“I feel like I’m ready for a breakthrough,” she said. “You can always run a little bit faster.”
—Renée Kennedy
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