High school track stars from the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows School District were up and down the podium as the Upper Fraser Valley Track and Field Championships, which were held in Abbotsford last week.
That event takes in the top high school athletes from Langley, Abbotsford, Chilliwack, and the local area, as far east to Hope.
Jayden Brown of Thomas Haney won the Grade 8 boys 100m dash in a time of 12.12, and also took third in the 200m. Then in the field events, he won the Grade 8 long jump.
Abisayo Ajibike of MRSS took second in the junior girls 100m in 12.83. She also finished second in long jump.
Emily Morley of MRSS won the Grade 8 girls long jump, and was third in the 200m sprint.
Zac Hetherington won the senior boys 400m, while his Marauders teammate Sean Hutchinson finished third.
In the senior girls 400m race, Monique Lisek of MRSS won, and Pitt’s Trisha Harrison finished third. Lisek also won the girls 400m hurdles, and took second in the long jump.
Reid Mueller of Pitt won the senior boys 800m in dominant fashion, covering two laps of the track in 1:58.3, which was almost a full five seconds ahead of the second-place finisher. He also won the 1,500m race.
Haney’s Christina Johnson took third place in the senior girls 800m.
Pitt miler Liam Foster finished third in the junior boys 1,500m, in a time of 4:32.5.
MRSS senior girls hurdler Claire Liversidge won a silver medal in the 100m event.
Pitt strider Jordan Jones took second in the 1,500m racewalk.
Pitt throwers dominated the senior shotput events, as Nick Stetsyuk won the senior boys with a throw of 13.64m, and Olivia Moriconi took the girls event with a toss of 12.50m. Stetsyuk had tough competition, and won by just one centimetre. Conversely, Mariconi was out in front by more than four metres.
Then she took the senior girls discus in similarly dominant fashion, as her throw of 36.3m was almost three metres farther than second place.
Marauder javelin thrower Jacob Gowler won with a throw of 50.35m, and most of the field wasn’t within 10m of him.
Jorrin Lenton of MRSS was second in the Grade 8 boys javelin.
Haney Grade 8 shotputter Kate Meredith won with a 10.09m throw, and also finished third in the high jump.
Thomas Haney’s Erick Villaneuva won the junior boys long jump.
Kayleig McNeill of Samuel Robertson Technical was third in the triple jump.
MRSS high jumper Natalie Rycroft was third in the senior girls competition.
A pair of Westview leapers won at high jump. Grade 8 Graeme Roberts went 1.65m, and senior Tarl Edwards cleared 1.80m.
Garibaldi got onto the podium, as senior girls hammer thrower Natasha Akbarizadeh won her event. Pitt’s talented thrower Mariconi finished third.
Pitt’s Natasha Crawford finished third in the junior girls hammer.
The MRSS relays did well, as the junior boys and girls 4x100m relays, and the grade 8 girls 4x100m, all finished second. The senior girls 4x100m finished third.
The Grade 8 boys 4x400m took first, almost nine seconds ahead of the silver medallists. The Grade 8 girls 4x400m relay finished second, as did the junior girls.
The Pitt senior boys took first place in both relay events. Their junior girls relays finished third in both races.
Now these athletes will qualify to compete in the Fraser Valley championships, to be held May 12-13 at Coquitlam Town Centre.
Their ultimate goal will be to chase a provincial gold medal, that can be had May 29-31 at McLeod Athletic Park in Langley.