Central Okanagan athletes turned in one of the district’s best overall performances in years at the B.C. School Sports track and championships.
Led by Okanagan Mission Secondary’s Aaron Stroda, who stepped on to the podium three times, local athletes picked up 17 medals over the weekend in Langley.
Other multiple medal winners were Rutland’s Jerome Blake, OKM’s John Gay, Mount Boucherie’s Veronika Fagan, Jesse Benneke from OKM and Dr. Knox’s Kyra McNulty.
Stroda earned a medal of each colour, grabbing gold in the senior boys’ shot put, silver in the discus and bronze in the hammer throw.
Blake, who won the same events two weeks earlier at the valleys, claimed double gold in the senior boys 100 metre (10.94 seconds) and 200-metre events (22.34). Blake was also fourth in long jump.
Gay won a pair of silver medals in the senior boys steeplechase and in the 3000 metres.
Fagan captured a pair of bronze medals in the senior girls 1,500 steeplechase and the 3,000 metres.
Jesse Benneke ran to a pair of bronze medals in the Grade 8 boys 100 and 200 metres, while McNulty won silver in the 1500 metres and bronze in the 800.
Other medal winners from the Central Okanagan, included Keely Watts-Watling of KSS who took bronze in the senior girls’ long jump. She was also fifth in shotput and the 100 hurdles.
Rutland’s Davis Hughes-Geekie ran to a bronze medal in the junior boys 800 and was also 10th in the 400.
Mt. Boucherie’s Austin Sandrin won bronze in the junior boys discus, and added a sixth in the javelin.
George Elliot’s Taryn O’Neil, a Grade 8 athlete competing up an age group in junior girls, won silver in the 3000 metres, and was also sixth in the 800.
Other top 10s: Saskia Kowallik (OKM) 6th in senior girls 400 hurdles; Adam Murray (OKM) ninth in senior boys steeplechase; Bronson Reid (OKM) ninth in 800; Noemi Stroda (OKM) eighth in junior girls shot and discus; Nicholas Gnazdowsky (Boucherie) eighth in senior boys high jump; Turner Woodfruff (OKM) eighth in Grade 8 boys 800 and 10th in 1,500; Maggie Minkus (Dr. Knox) fifth in Grade 8 100 and 200 metres; Joel Aitken (Knox) eighth in Grade 8 triple jump; Bryn Walsh (Knox) sixth in Grade 8 girls 200; and Karina Bagi (OKM) 10th in shot put.
