The final results have been tallied, and Chilcotin Road are the School District 27 Track and Field Meet champions.
Athletes converged at Nesika and Columneetza schools last month for the annual event that saw 329 of the city’s top elementary school athletes in grades 4-6 making up 1,200 entries to compete in multiple events.
Combined team scores are as follows: 1.) Chilcotin Road; 2.) Nesika; 3.) Cataline; 4.) 150 Mile; 5.) Mountview; 6.) Sacred Heart; 7.) Grow Cubs; 8.) Marie Sharpe; 9.) Big Lake.
“These kids compete hard,” track and field meet organizer Kelvin Parent said. “The standards [to qualify] keep getting tougher. We give them a minimum of what they have to achieve so they’ve got to work a little harder at their home meets. Each year we probably have less athletes but much tighter races.”
This year, Gabrielle Knox was the only athlete to achieve a new record where she beat the girls’ ages 9-10 100-metre record posting a time of 15 seconds flat, toppling the previous record by .06 seconds.
The top five overall athletes in each age category were:
Boys 9-10: 1.) Declan Pocock (Chilcotin Road); 2.) Lane Wiggins (150 Mile); 3.) Eli Schwaller (Mountview); 4.) Aiden Fulton (Cataline School); 5.) Ben Wessels (150 Mile).
Boys 11: 1.) Jackson Altwasser (Nesika); 2.) Daniel Villeneuve (Nesika); 3.) Kolby Croswell (150 Mile); 4.) Matthew Kelly (Marie Sharpe); 5.) Kalub Scaiano (150 Mile).
Boys 12-13: 1.) Max Sanford (Mountview); 2.) Tyler Oerlemans (Chilcotin Road); 3.) Jacob Johnson (150 Mile); 4.) Ethan Reid (Chilcotin Road); 5.) Shale Stemp (Mountview).
Girls 9-10: 1.) Gabrielle Knox (Mountview); 2.) Anika Wallin (Nesika); 3.) Kalli Campbell (Nesika); 4.) Klay-Lynn Pare (Mountview); 5.) Jessica Kelly (Marie Sharpe).
Girls 11: 1.) Gabriela Smith Forzzani (Sacred Heart); 2.) Lauryn Marklinger (Grow Cubs); 3.) Rachel Loewen (Cataline); 4.) Leah Lauren (Cataline); 5.) Sophie Pavlovic (150 Mile).
Girls 12-13: 1.) Madigan Riplinger (Nesika); 2.) Taylor Fitzgerald (Chilcotin Road); 3.) Jessica Tritten (150 Mile); 4.) Kendra Parent (Mountview); 5.) Leah Jacobsen (Cataline).
Parent added some 40 volunteers help make the meet possible.