Eight varsity cross-country runners endured a frozen hard-packed trail at the provincial championships in Kelowna last weekend and most came home with personal bests.
Leading the way for Quesnel, at the Telemark cross-country facility, was Ines Zimmerman, a Grade 12 exchange student at Correlieu senior secondary.
Zimmerman, who finished first at the zone championships, finished the provincial championship in seventh place, missing third place by only four seconds, coach Pat Marsh said.
“She had a fabulous run,” Marsh said.
Zimmerman is only one of five runners from CSS who have managed to crack the top 10 at the provincials, including Carla Dunn Celia Ambery, Bevin Kennelly and Erin Prosk.
Also having a good race for Correlieu was Laura Dunn who finished in 162nd place.
Dunn, a Grade 10 student at CSS, improved her standing in the north zone, moving up from 24th to 19th.
“A terrific race, she beat five runners who had finished ahead of her in the north-central zone championships,” Marsh said.
Other senior girls at the provincial championships were Amy Wood, Katrina MacLean and Regan Richert.
“They had some bad luck, including injuries,” Marsh said.
Kyra Teetzen, a Grade 8 student at Quesnel junior school, finished in 146th place, which is among the top half of the field.
“It was her first provincial competition, she did extremely well,” Marsh said.
On the boys side, Liam McIlvenna and Konrad Teetzen, both from QJS, stepped up to the line to represent Quesnel.
Running against mostly Grade 11 and Grade 12 students, McIlvenna placed 120th, improving by 69 placings over his race at the provincials last year.
“It’s an excellent result for a Grade 9 boy to place in the top half of the provincial field,” Marsh said.
Teetzen, in his first provincial race, finished in 233rd place. Compared to other runners from the north-central zone, Teetzen improved to 13th place from 25th place.
