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Sparked by the gold-medal performances of two sisters from Vernon, Okanagan Valley athletes claimed a significant share of the spotlight among 844 competitors at the annual B.C. School Sports cross country running championships at Telemark on Saturday.
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Hannah Bennison of Vernon Secondary School captured her third straight provincial senior girls title with a time of 17 minutes 50 seconds over the gruelling 4.5-kilometre course. Earlier in the day, younger sister, Mia, covered the same course on the cross country ski trails in West Kelowna in a clocking of 19:04.
For the elder Bennison, the first-place finish among 223 senior runners came on the heels of a victory in the Okanagan Valley championships at Telemark on Oct. 25. That race confirmed the 17-year-old Grade 12 student had recovered from an IT Band Syndrome injury that had sidelined her from a regular running routine for seven months.
The 2015 Canadian junior cross country champion and BCSS 3,000-metre high school track record holder, who trains with the Okanagan Athletics Club in Kelowna, had resumed full workouts only seven weeks ago.
Bennison took the lead early on Saturday and held off Christina Sevsek of Surrey’s Clayton Heights Secondary School the rest of the way in what was a repeat of last year’s one-two finish. Sevsek crossed the finish line just four seconds later, while her sister Julie Sevsek placed third in 18:11.
Taryn O’Neill of the George Elliot Coyotes in Lake Country, ran another steady race among the leaders, finishing fourth overall in 18:22.
The next best senior girls finisher from the Okanagan was Mekenna Jensen of Mt. Boucherie, who placed 46th overall in a time of 21:21.
Mia Bennison, the Okanagan Valley’s 2016 junior champion, earned her provincial gold with an eight-second margin over runner-up Sophie Konrad of the Carson Graham Eagles (North Vancouver). Third place among the 197 junior runners went to Annika Ariano of the W.L. Seaton Sonics of Vernon with a time of 19:16.
Salmon Arm’s Chantel Jeffrey also broke into the top 10 among the juniors with a ninth-place (20:11) finish on the challenging course and Tegan Heshka of Sahali in Kamloops crossed in 11th place in 20:31. The top Central Okanagan runner was KLO Middle School’s Danielle Selby, who placed 41st in 21:43.
The 4.5K junior boys race saw Logan MacDonald of Sardis lead the pack with a time of 17:09, just a second ahead of Logan Hwang of the Westsyde Whundas of Kamloops.
Peachland’s Brock Hoel, an online student through Heritage Christian School in Kelowna, claimed provincial bronze with a time of 17:18. The Canadian youth elite national triathlon champion finished 17 seconds ahead of Aberdeen Hall’s Jasper Stone, who came in fifth.
Braden Kersey of W.L. Seaton in Vernon nailed down 10th place among the 202 junior boys while Keagan Ingram and Jason Scherban placed 11th and 13th place respectively to lead the Summerland Secondary School junior boys to a second-place in the provincial team competition.
Michael Denman of the host Kelowna Secondary School Owls nailed down 28th spot and Connor Hobbs of KLO placed 30th.
Okanagan runners were shut out of the top 10 in the senior boys event won by Tyler Dozzi of Oak Bay, who covered the 6.7-kilometre race in 24:23. Thomas Nobbs of Point Grey placed second in 24:56 and Roberto Playo-Mazzone finished third in 25:06.
Turner Woodruff of the Okanagan Mission Huskies was the top finisher from the Central Okanagan, posting a time of 26:27, good for 20th place among 222 senior boys. Dayton Bath of KSS finished in 24th place and Owen Harris of OKM was close behind in 26th place (26:45).
Related story: Emotional lead-up to provincials for Hannah Bennison
Photo Gallery (209 photos) on KelownaNow's Facebook page
Photo Gallery (209 photos) on KelownaNow's Facebook page
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