On Saturday, athletes from Maple Ridge secondary travelled to Arlington, Wash. for the Hole in the Wall Invitational Cross Country meet, and put on quite a show.
In the first race of the day, the Grade 8 girls set the tone, with three athletes earning ribbons by finishing in the top 12 – Emily Morley, Brook Parry and Bronte Elphick-Miner.
Jamie Hennessey competed against 165 athletes in JV championship and won the race by more than a minute.
In that same race, Maggie Coles-Lyster finished a strong fourth.
Mikayla Tinkham started the varsity race against 142 competitors and dominated the race from start to finish.
Ryan Ibbitt and Jack Chisolm took on 268 boys in the junior varsity division and finished 9th and 48th, respectively.
On Oct. 5, there were 29 high school cross country runners from local schools at the 40th Annual Sunfair Invitational High School Cross Meet in Yakima.
Hennessey won the junior varsity girls division (166 participants), setting a new course record of 19:04 over three miles. She won by more than a minute.
In the freshman two- mile race, Madelyn Huston of Thomas Haney placed 4th, Hayley Vaughan and Morley, both of MRSS were sixth and 13th, respectively,., while Kayleigh McNeil of Samuel Robertson Technical placed 32nd.
In the boys’ freshman two- mile (144 runners), Ryan Butler (Thomas Haney) placed 15th, Alex Ross (Thomas Haney) was 23rd and Graeme Roberts (Westview) was 30th.
In the senior category, Madesyn McNeil placed 8th in Flight 1, Niamh O’Dwyer (Pitt Meadows) place third in Flight 2 and Michaela Smart (Archbishop Carney) placed 21st.
Tinkham (MRSS) placed third in Flight 3.
In the senior boys’ category, Reid Muller (Pitt Meadows) placed second in Flight 5, while Isaac Wadhwani of Maple Ridge placed 10th in Flight 6.
In the fastest flight of the day, Nathan Wadhwani, a member of Canadian Youth Track and Field Team at World Championships this past summer, placed a close second with a time of 14:56 for three miles. This was the sixth fastest time on the course in the 40-year history of the meet.
Wadhwani led nearly the entire race and finished .48 of a second behind the host school’s Drew Schreider in a thrilling sprint finish.