Tanner Geary led a youthful Sardis secondary school senior boys’ cross-country team to a 10th place finish at last weekend’s provincials.
The year end race was held Saturday on a trail surrounding Victoria’s Juan de Fuca Recreation Centre.
The Falcons sent a team of seven, only one of them (Santana McKay) a Grade 12 athlete.
Geary, who is in Grade 11, led the crew with a time of 22:26.60, the 15th best individual mark.
Kristian Biela was next, finishing 40th with a time of 24:02.30.
Logan Clegg finished 48th at 24:25.06.
Keegan Schram-Smith finished 70th at 25:09.25.
Riley Clemons finished 109th at 26:52.25.
McKay finished 121st at 27:39.50 and Keegan Lightle finished 141st at 29:29.90.
The placings of the top five Falcons added up to 282 points, eight ahead of 11th place Penticton and 16 points behind ninth place West Vancouver.
The overall winner, Nanaimo’s Dover Bay, placed all five of their qualifiers inside the top 11, accumulating 37 points.
Dover Bay’s margin of victory over second place Claremont (Victoria) was an astounding 109 points. Vancouver’s St. George’s School was third.
Two local schools were represented in the senior girls’ bracket.
Sardis finished 16th in the field of 22 teams, led by Caitlin LeBlanc.
LeBlanc had the 18th fastest individual time, clocking in at 17:05.95.
But the next fastest Falcon was well back.
Lauren Kean placed 76th at 19:26.25 and the rest of the team — Kiana Olafson, Sofia Biela and Anna MacKenzie — was outside the top 100.
Chilliwack secondary school’s team finished 22nd overall, led by Kaitlyn Lindhout.
Lindhout was the lone CSS runner inside the top 100, placing 65th at 18:55.84.
Kalyn Head was 119th at 21:26.09.
Jordyn Downey was 129th at 22:29.64.
Katie Sanchez was 135th at 23:16.46 and Kana Kobayashi was 139th at 23:45.37.
West Point Grey Academy was the first place finisher on the senior girls’ side, followed by Sentinel (West Vancouver) and Semiahmoo.
Find full results at bcxc.ca/results2014.html
