By Graham Hansel
On Oct. 23 the junior boys cross country running team from Clearwater Secondary School wrapped up its season with a strong sixth place team finish at the Okanagan Valley Sport Athletic Association championships at Stake Lake in Kamloops.
The junior boys team was made up of Olin Coates, Braxton Hall, Cayle Hall, and Rylan Stelter who had individually placed 13th, 32nd 43rd and 49th in a field of about 100 athletes and 17 teams in the juniors boys four km race.
The team had previously placed 2nd at the Kamloops city championships, which showed they would be more than able to compete with the many bigger schools from Kamloops, Kelowna, Vernon, and Penticton that were represented at the Okanagan championships.
The race day was highlighted by Olin Coates 13th place finish in a time of 16:34, which earned him a qualifying spot at the Provincial Cross Country Championships in Nanaimo on Nov. 3.
This will be Olin’s first time competing at the provincial level, and will be a great opportunity to see how he stacks up with the rest of the top cross country runners from throughout the province.
The future looks bright for this young team as all four athletes will be returning to the junior boys category for next year with the goal of placing in the top three as a team and qualifying for provincials.
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