CIS Corner: Gaels' Allin amazes ...

Notes on our athletes/teams of interest from The 613 ...

Did you see who had the fastest time in the shuttle run at the CFL evaluation camp?

There are major sports-geek points to anyone who noticed Queen's Golden Gaels defensive back-kick returner Jim Allin (pictured), clocked 3.97 seconds. Who knows what that might lead to considering that Allin is only 5-foot-10 and 170 lbs. and we're not a CFL personnel guy, but nevertheless. Allin was the first player to do the shuttle run (sprint five yards to the left, 10 yards to the right, five to the left back to where you started) in less than four seconds, taking a 10th of the second off the mark set by Laval's Mathieu Proulx, who's now with the Montréal Alouettes, at the 2005 E-Camp.

For sheer point of context-less comparison, Samuel Giguère, the Sherbrooke receiver who spent last season on the taxi squad with the NFL's Indianapolis Colts, had the fastest shuttle run in 2008 at 4.10 seconds.

There was probably an argument for Allin as the Golden Gaels' MVP last season, no mean feat on a team which had the Presidents' Trophy winner on defence (Thaine Carter), a 1,000-yard receiver (Scott Valberg), a 1,000-yard rusher (Mike Giffin, who ran like an angry young man) and a QB, Dan Brannagan, who set a school mark for TD passes in a season. Allin, a former high school quarterback, did a bit of everything, play cornerback, defensive halfback, return kicks, hold the ball for field goals, carry the ball on gadget plays on offence. (According to assistant coach Ricky Jimmy, he was like the Viet Cong out there.)

Allin is a unique player. He's on the small side, but a player with his skillset who also aspires to be a doctor? Someone in the CFL would want him, right?

The results are on the CFL website and it's bad form to just do a regurge of what interested readers can find for themselves. It is probably best not to get into why it's fascinating that Matt Lambros, a 6-foot-2, 205-lb. wide receiver who played at Liberty University, has very small hands, measuring only 8¾ inches from the tip of his pinkie, especially if you're of a kind of mind where you'll actually write a post about free-throw shooting in Canadian university basketball.

Queen's had centre Dan Bederman, defensive end Osie Ukwuoma, defensive tackle Dee Sterling and inside linebacker Thaine Carter. Sterling was one of five players to bench-press 225 lbs. 23 times, which one would figure might help his draft status. Who knows, we're not an expert; those in the know seem very high on the Ottawa Gee-Gees linebacker, Mike Cornell.

You probably already heard, but the Bishop's Gaiters Jamall Lee, son of former Rough Riders star Orville Lee (and someone who counts Napanee's own Leroy Blugh, his coach at BU, as a huge influence), ran a 4.39-second 40-yard dash. Has the NFL heard about Lee?

• Napanee's Matteke Hutzler, as you probably heard, earned most outstanding player honours while helping Simon Fraser win the CIS women's basketball championship on the weekend. SFU beat host Regina 68-62 in the final, with Hutzler scoring 11 points and contributing two steals and an assist during the final 120 seconds when the Clan was dotting the i's and crossing the T's on its second national title in three years.
  
  By unofficial count, she also set some pretty inpenetrable screens for about four, maybe five Simon Fraser three-pointers.
  
  There is all sort of news about that at Campus Chatter and there was a liveblog at cisblog.ca.
• The Score's broadcast team of Jason Thom and Christine Stapleton had a pretty solid weekend. Thom got off great line when a Regina three-pointer became a long two because the player had her tippy-toes on the line. "She bought the nines when she should have bought the 8½'s."
  
  It made up for the broadcasters saying Hutzler was from Nepean, Ontario, not Napanee. You have no idea how often that has happened, especially in loud bars as undergrad. "Where are you from?" ... "Napanee." ... "Nepean?" ... "Sure, Nepean."
• The Ottawa Gee-Gees, who got the series-winner from Brittany Jones vs. Carleton, after 26 minutes of overtime SUnday, are headed to the CIS women's hockey championship for a third straight season. For anyone wondering, yes, it was the first time a Quebec conference series went to double overtime in all three games.
  
  Ottawa was 16-of-16 on the penalty kill, which probably swung the balance a bit in a series which had only nine goals in the equivalent of five 60-minute games.
• A tip of the cap is due to Queen's 'tender Melissa John for her 57-save effort on Saturday. Laurier needed three overtimes, and a 5-on-3 power play, before Lauren Barch could finally wrap up the series for the Golden Hawks.
  
  Kingston native Karly Powers, who went to high school across the street from Queen's at KCVI, scored the tying goal for Laurier.

There will be lots to come at TCB this week. Mark Wacyk is back on the horse over at cishoops.ca and it betters language to explain how that is wonderful.