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Phoebe Price-Roberts flung her way to a trio of victories for a second straight week, most recently at the Okanagan Valley junior track and field championships in Kamloops.
The Aberdeen Hall Prep School athlete, winner of the javelin, hammer and discus throws at the Central Okanagan zone meet at the Apple Bowl a week earlier, led the field again in all three disciplines at Hillside Stadium to earn a berth at the B.C. high school championships in Nanaimo June 2-4.
Price-Roberts bettered her zone throw of 26.22 metres in the discus with a heave of 27.32 metres at the Valley competition. The Grade 10 student finished first in the hammer throw with a distance of 44.51 metres (she posted a 50.31 at the zone) and took top spot in the javelin with a toss of 31.30 (33.16 at zone).
Taryn O’Neill of the George Elliot Coyotes will return to the provincial championships by running to a pair of victories at the Valley meet that included schools from throughout the Thompson-Okanagan region. She crossed first in the junior girls’ 800-metre event with a time of 2:26.98 and ran away from the field in the 1,500 metres with a clocking of 4:50.91 — 22 seconds ahead of her nearest rival.
Mt. Boucherie Secondary School’s Jesse Benneke breezed to two wins in the junior boys’ sprints. He outran six other competitors in the 100-metre final in a time of 11.57 seconds. Alexander Gross was second in 12.14 seconds. The 200-metre run saw Benneke post a time of 22.80 seconds for top spot.
Bryn Walsh of Kelowna Secondary earned a first- and two second-place finishes in the junior meet. She won the 200-metre sprint in 26.59 to follow up her victory at the zone championship (26.73). The Grade 10 speedster was edged out by Kenaysha Lyder of Dr. Knox Middle School in the 100-metre final. Walsh was clocked at 13.41 seconds while Lyder won the race in 13.37 and then added another second-place finish in the pole vault with a height of 2.10 metres.
Kelowna Owls’ Taya Hanson was the lone runner among seven to break the one minute mark in the junior 400-metre event, posting a time of 59.34. She added a second-place finish in the long jump with a distance of 4.77 metres.
Muriel Stroda of Okanagan Mission Secondary finished third in the junior long jump (4.75), while she won the 80-metre hurdles in 12.64 seconds and placed third in the high jump with a leap of 1.45 metres.
A time of 42.81 seconds earned Noah Russell of Const. Neil Bruce Middle School in West Kelowna first place in the junior boys’ 300-metre hurdles event while he placed second in the 100-metre hurdles with a clocking of 15.29.
Joel Aitken of KSS finished second to Russell in the 300 hurdles and won the triple jump easily with a distance of 11.47 metres.
Other Central Okanagan athletes claiming victories in the junior division were:
Rylee Paulson - George Elliot - 1,500 metres - 6:17.54.
Ava Kalashnikoff - Dr. Knox - 1,500 metres - 10:01.33.
Gregor Smith - KLO - 400 metres - 55:34.
Turner Woodruff - OKM - 1,500 metres - 4:28.53.
Jacob Harris - OKM - 3,000 metres - 9:41.32
Simon Paul - Const. Neil Bruce - shot put - 10.26.
Kyle Barker - George Elliot - javelin - 44.70.
McWilliams lead Central Okanagan senior athletes
Twin sisters, Rhianne and Leah McWilliam, reaffirmed their supremacy in the sprints at the Okanagan Valley senior track and field championships in Kamloops.
The Grade 12 Okanagan Mission Secondary School student athletes repeated their sweep of the 100-, 200- and 400-metre events, the only difference being Rhianne edging out Leah in the 100-metres.
Rhianne dashed to top spot in the 100 with a time of 13.80, while Leah settled for second in 13.83 seconds. Meanwhile, Leah repeated her win in the 200 with a time of 27:10 and Rhianne took second place in 27.29. The 400-metre event saw Leah cross in 1:03.33 and Rhianne in 1:03.84.
Both will return to the provincial high school championships, this year being held in Nanaimo.
Joining them again will be Kelowna Secondary’s Sean Bergman, who claimed Valley titles in both the 3,000 metres and the 2,000 steeplechase.
Bergman, a gold-medal winner in the steeplechase at provincials last year in a personal-best time of 5:55.03, won the Valley title in 6:08.63. His winning time in the 3,000 was 8:47.19. KSS teammate, Chet Goerzen, was runner-up in both events with clockings of 8:48.44 in the 3,000 and 6:18.72 in the steeplechase.
Davis Hughes of Rutland Secondary also ran to a pair of Valley victories, winning the 400-metre senior event in 52:07 seconds and finishing first in the 800 metres in a time of 2:01.17, more than six seconds ahead of his nearest competitor.
Mt. Boucherie Bears’ Steven Johnson claimed two sprinting wins. He garnered top spot in the 100 metres in a time of 11.67 and finished first in the 200 with a clocking of 23.38 seconds.
Willow Benitz also was a double winner. The Aberdeen Hall Grade 11 student athlete ran to first in the senior girls’ 800 metres in a time of 2:30.98 and in the 1,500 metres (5:09.10).
A pair of medals went to Boucherie’s Austin Sandrin, who earned gold in the javelin with a throw of 44.49 metres. He nailed down second place in the shot put with a distance of 10.89 metres.
Cam Noble of OKM also earned a first- and second-place finish. The Grade 11 student won the pole vault with a height of three metres and was runner-up in the long jump, posting a distance of 5.61 metres. Brandon Harder of George Elliot won the event with a jump of 6.06 metres.
Rounding out the Kelowna-area athletes with first-place finishes at the Valley championships were:
Nick Cornell - KSS - hammer - 41.16 metres
Daniel Harsch - OKM - shot put - 9.11
Josh Hettinga - Kelowna Christian - 400 hurdles - 1:04.14
Noemi Stroda - OKM - shot put - 8.24
Jaydeen Braham - Aberdeen - triple jump - 9.10
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