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Record-setting performances by a trio of multi-talented athletes were at the forefront of impressive results for Kelowna school teams at the Okanagan Valley Track and Field Championships in Kamloops this week.
Muriel Stroda of the Okanagan Mission Huskies, Emma Cannan of the Kelowna Owls and the KLO Cougars’ Tyson Carr were among only four athletes (Keagan Ingram of Summerland was the other) to claim three individual victories at the Okanagan-wide meet. And all three broke Valley records in the process.
Stroda, 18, ran the senior girls 100-metre hurdles in a time of 15.21 seconds, not only breaking the record (15.60) set by Pleasant Valley's Jaeda Ostoforoff of Armstrong last year but also edging Ostoforoff (15.94) in Monday’s showdown at Hillside Stadium.
In training for the upcoming B.C. Secondary Schools Track and Field Association combined events championship May 24-25 and BCSSTFA provincial track and field championships in Kelowna May 30-June 1, Stroda added a first-place finish in javelin with a personal-best heave of 32.51 metres, bettering her previous PB of 31.77. She also took top spot in the long jump with a distance of 5.11 metres, just shy of her personal best of 5.19, set last year at the Jack Brow Memorial meet in Kelowna.
Before graduating to the UBC Okanagan nursing program this fall, Stroda, under the tutelage of her mom Verena, will compete at the national combined events championships in Toronto in June and will close out summer competition at the B.C. Athletics championships in Kamloops.
Another busy summer is also in store for Cannan, who has her sights set on a return trip to the Canadian Legion national championships, this year in Nova Scotia in August.
The Grade 10 student at Kelowna Secondary School showed why she is considered one of the top 15-year-old track athletes in the country when she tied a Valley record on Monday in the junior girls 100-metre event with a clocking of 12.44 seconds. Since the other record-holders’ times through the 50-plus years of the event have been rounded to 12.5 seconds, she is tied for the all-time mark with four others, including former national volleyball team member, Erminia Russo, who was competing for KLO in 1980.
For Cannan, recovering from a recent hamstring injury, Monday’s time in the 100 was a personal best, bettering her previous PB of 12.47 set last year in Coquitlam. Among her several goals this summer are provincial age-group records in the 100 (12.34), 200 (25.20) and 400 (56.22).
In Kamloops, Cannan led the field of 11 runners in the 200 metres with a time of 26.13 (her PB is 25.44) and was the only competitor under the 27-second mark when she breezed to a win in the 400-metre event in 62.93 (PB is 57.17). KSS teammate, Presley Johnstone, was second in 68.19, helping the Owls to first place overall in the combined team (boys and girls) title in the Valley.
Cannan, an Okanagan Athletics Club member, also teamed up with Madelyn Hettinga, Lindsay Maier and Kenaysha Lyder to finish first in the senior girls 4x100 relay in a record time of 50.50 seconds, breaking the Valley mark set by KSS two years ago.
Also a member of the OAC, Carr contributed significantly (30 points) to the KLO Cougars finishing first among 26 teams for the Valley’s Grade 8 combined team championship.
Carr set a record in the 200-metre hurdles with a winning time of 27.30 seconds; finished first in the 800 metres in a time of 2:16.61; and led a field of nine in the 400 metres with a clocking of 58.05 seconds.
The 13-year-old (he’ll be 14 next month) also anchored the Cougars’ 4x100 relay team — including Kory Cheese-Clacken, Lynden Infanti and Santino Corbo — to first place in a record time of 48.10 seconds. The Valley mark had been held by a team from Clearwater since 1983. The KLO team of Carr, Cheese-Clacken, Corbo and Nathan Achtem added a Valley Grade 8 4x400 relay title with a winning time of 3:57.63. Dr. Knox was second in 4:33.67.
Carr will join Stroda at the B.C. secondary school combined events championships in Surrey later this month and will also be competing at the B.C. Athletics championships and the Jack Brow Memorial at the Apple Bowl before heading to the Canadian Legion Youth Nationals in Kamloops in July.
Meanwhile, the top four junior and senior finishers at the Valley championships qualified for the provincial secondary school track and field championships in Kelowna. They’ll be among about 2,400 athletes representing about 330 schools from across the province competing in 124 track and field events.
Top Individual Performances
(10 points for first place, 9 for second, 8 for third etc)
Team Standings
Complete Results
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