Kelowna’s Sean Bergman capped off a solid season on B.C.’s cross country circuit with a silver-medal performance at the B.C. high school championships in Victoria.
A Grade 11 student at KSS and member of the Okanagan Athletics Club, Bergman finished the 6.4 km race in 20 minutes 48 seconds, just 13 seconds back of North Surrey’s Nathan Tadesse.
Earlier this season, Bergman won gold at the B.C. Athletics championships and at the Okanagan Valley high school finals.
Okanagan Athletics Club coach Nathan Reiter commended Bergman for his effort amongst the province’s best runners.
“Nobody was really taking about Sean leading up to the race, there were a lot of runners who were getting the attention and were thought to be the favourites,” said Reiter. “It was huge for Sean to pull through and get the silver medal…he did a great job.”
Also in the senior boys’ race, OKM’s Adam Murray placed 19th.
Vernon’s Hannah Bennison, also an OAC member, won gold in the the senior girls 4.3 km race in 15 minutes even.
Kyra McNulty, a Grade 10 student at KSS, surprised the senior girls field with a third-place showing in 15:40.
“Kyra has been focusing on other sports as well, so third is awesome for her, it shows you how athletic and competitive she is,” said Reiter.
Boucherie’s Veronika Fagan was 27th.
In junior girls, Taryn O’Neill continued her domination of the division with the B.C. gold medal in a time of 15:40. The 14-year-old from George Elliot Secondary also won the junior titles at the Okanagan championships and the B.C. Athletics championships.
“She’s talented with lots of ability and dedicated to her training,” Reiter said of O’Neill. “She performs well at big competitions, and when the countdown to each race is on, she’s ready to go out and execute the plan.”
In the junior boys division, OKM’s Jacob Harris placed 13th.
