Cowichan Secondary School broke three meet records, won 21 medals, and had 30 provincial qualifiers from the Vancouver Island Track and Field Championships in Victoria on May 13 and 14.
The school placed third in the overall standings, missing the Island title not because of a lack of success but because the team is smaller than most.
"For the size of our team, we did quite well," coach Steve Ridenour said. "We dropped one place from last year, but we were the only team from north of Victoria to place in the top five."
Cowichan sprinters finished in three of the top four spots in the senior girls 100m – Taryn Smiley in first, Casey Heyd in second and Emily Lindsay in fourth, just 0.01 seconds out of third – and four of the top five in the 200m – Smiley first, Chicago Bains second, Nicole Lindsay fourth and Casey Heyd fifth.
Smiley, Bains, Heyd and Nicole Lindsay also broke Frances Kelsey’s record in the 4x100m relay with a time of 48.70, 0.15 seconds faster than the old mark. Bains added gold in the 100m hurdles and finished a close second in the 400m hurdles despite a hasty start after her previous event, having set a new record in the preliminaries of that race.
Desirae Ridenour also set a new Island record as she won the junior girls 3000m in 10:16.58, breaking her own record of 10:37.93. She also added a gold in the 1500m.
Kain Melchior leapt to a pair of gold medals in the senior boys long jump and triple jump, and added a silver in the high jump.
Olivia Burton, Syan Johnson, Brigitte Reid and Emma Dewit finished second in the junior girls 4x100m, and Smiley, Nicole Lindsay, Ridenour and Burton placed third in the junior girls 4x400m. Nicole Lindsay was second in the senior girls 400m, Maddie Mahon took silver in the junior girls shot put, and Emily Lindsay was third in the senior girls triple jump.
Cowichan also added relay silvers in the junior boys 4x100m
(Miles Boulton, Luca Klotz, Sage Popp and Nicholas Yu), and 4x400m (Klotz, Popp, Luke Armstrong and Brendon Kerwin). Other provincial qualifiers from the school include Burton (fourth in junior girls 400m), Emily Lindsay (fourth in senior girls long jump), Kelsey Goodman (fifth in senior girls 800m), Josh Charles (fifth in senior boys high jump), and Nicholas Yu (fifth in senior boys high jump).
Frances Kelsey had one provincial qualifier as Quienten Currie finished fifth in the senior boys high jump.
Brentwood College’s Sion Griffiths won gold medals in the junior boys hammer throw, shot put and javelin, while teammate Keiran Marrett-Hitch won the junior boys high jump. Kabir Bellerose placed third in the senior boys 400m hurdles, and qualified for provincials by placing fifth in the 400m dash.
From Duncan Christian School, Mikayla Cook took bronze in the senior girls long jump and qualified for provincials with a fourth in the triple jump.
Chemainus Secondary had a lone provincial qualifier in Zach Diewert, who placed third in the senior boys shot put. Jose Garza was Dwight School Canada’s only qualifier, finishing fifth in the junior boys discus.
Queen Margaret’s School also sent athletes to the Island meet, but didn’t have any provincial qualifiers. Christina Dicarlo was their top athlete, placing seventh in senior girls triple jump and 12th in javelin.
