The Elphinstone track and field team had another successful season, with the largest number of athletes ever qualifying for the North Shore Zone Championships held at Swangard Stadium on Tuesday, May 16.At the end of the day, the boys' team captured the overall boys' title, beating all AAA and AA schools. The full Elphi team finished second in the AA Division and fourth overall.Twenty-five athletes in all from the school qualified for the zone championships through a series of preliminary meets held over the previous three weeks."The constant travel and ferry problems were beginning to take its toll on the team, but Tuesday saw all that forgotten as many members of the team produced personal best results and finished in the top three of their event," said coach Tom Daniels.Of particular note was the performance of the long and triple jumpers.Coached by Kree Girard, the team took the top three spots in both the junior boys' triple jump (Jonathon Garmulewicz, Christian Jeffery, Mario Jean-Coulson) and the senior boys' long jump (Spencer Williams, Patrick Swadden, James Law). Kim Doerksen added to the jumps medal count by winning the junior girls' triple jump with a personal best result of 9.85m, a jump that also qualified her for the provincial championships on June 2.Clay Brown, Grade 8, also had a successful introduction to high school track and field, finishing first in the bantam boys long jump and triple jump, and second in the 200m. At the end of the day, Clay won the overall boys' bantam aggregate award.Brianna Kane showed she was on track to repeat last year's medal performance at the BC Provincial Track and Field Meet by winning the senior girls 400m in a very fast 57.9 seconds. That time should once again make her one of the top contenders in the 400m."We definitely have the quality to finish first overall," said Daniels. "What we are lacking right now are a few more athletes in a few key events. Unfortunately, some athletes had to be dropped from the team as a result of involvement in other sports on the same days as the track meets. If they were able to continue, we most likely would have won the AA title, and may have even challenged for the overall title."In all eight athletes in individual events and three relay teams qualified for the high school provincial meet to be held at Swangard Stadium June 2 and 3. They include: Tyrell Dempster (hammer, discus), Kim Doerksen (triple jump), Jonathon Garmulewicz (triple jump), Brianna Kane (200m, 400m), Sam Lyons (javelin), Shaun Stephens-Whale (1,500m, 3,000m), Patrick Swadden (triple jump, long jump), and Spencer Williams (long jump).Joining the individual competitors are three relay teams: girls' 4X100 (Candice Veale, Michaela Kane, Kim Doerksen, Brianna Kane), boys' 4X100 (Brett Jensen, James Law, Christian Jeffery, Spencer Williams), and the boys 4X400m (Brett Jensen, James Law, Christian Jeffery, Patrick Swadden).
