A strong, rookie-laden squad from Elphinstone Secondary School hit the track at Swangard Stadium in Burnaby last weekend for the high school provincial championships and showed some of the top schools in the province that their team is a force to be reckoned with.
In all, 17 Cougars qualified for the provincials following a solid season and a second place finish among the AA North Shore schools in the zone finals.
Elphi lost out to Rockridge, a much larger school at the zone finals, held May 11 at Swangard and were third overall behind Sentinel and Rockridge. Elphi had a large team this year with 34 competitors. Top placings at the zones included Brandy Perry, first overall bantam girl after a first in shot put, discus and javelin; Clay Brown, first overall senior boys with a first in the 100m hurdles, triple jump and long jump; Katie Russell, second overall junior girl after a first in the 100m, 200m and a second in the 400m, Tiegan Daniels, fifth overall senior girl after a first in the 100m hurdles, second in 100m and third in the 200m and Sara Perry, fifth overall junior girl after a second in the shot put and third in the javelin and discus.
Those results at the zones set the Cougars up for last weekend's provincials where Tiegan competed in the 100m hurdles, 100m and 200m, Clay in the 110m hurdles, triple jump and long jump, Sam Garmulewicz in the 100m and 200m, Julie Beadle in the 400m and javelin, Alex Cloherty in the 400m, Larenne Karmel in javelin, Oliver Telfer in the 800m and 3,000m, Jenn Mauel in the 1,500m and 3,000m, Robin Maser Housden in the 1,500m racewalk, Mason Gregory in the 2,000m steeplechase, and Henry Wood in the triple jump.
The Cougars also sent four relays teams, which included: senior girls 4x100 (Tiegan, Katie, Cailin Lyndsay and Anna Veale); the senior girls 4x100 (Larenne, Etta Degnan, Holly Perrier and Anya Kuling), the senior boys 4x400 (Sam, Oliver, Kelly Perreur-Lloyd and Clay) and the senior girls 4x400 (Alex, Julie, Katie and Anna).
Coach Tom Daniels said the Cougars had 13 personal best performances out of the 22 events the team competed in over the two days.
"With a large rookie squad to come up with all the personal bests at a big meet like that is quite rewarding," said Daniels. "Overall, we had a very good season with lots of good, quality performances. The team worked hard and worked together. We had a lot of newcomers to the team, but as you can see from the results, they finished very well."
Top performances from the provincials included a silver medal for Clay who had a personal best jump of 13.79m in the triple jump and finished sixth in the long jump with a personal best 6.35m. The 4x400 men's team also made it to the finals finishing eighth overall.
"We had a lot of finishes in the 10th through 15th positions. For a school like ours to finish that high up against all the AAA schools, is quite rewarding for our athletes," Daniels said.
