Twelve local runners made the trip down to Abbotsford to compete at the 2019 BC Cross-Country Championships on Saturday (Nov. 2).
Quesnel head coach Scott Trueman says the conditions were perfect for a long distance race.
“The weather was the best we have seen at a provincial meet in the past 10 years,” he says. “Beautiful and sunny.”
Ruby Nicholas (17th in Junior Girls) and Caleb Woolends (98th in Junior Boys) had the top performances out of the athletes who attended, but Trueman says all the competitors ran their hearts out against some really tough competition.
“I must emphasize that most of our runners had never been to a Provincial Championships race with 300 runners per category,” Trueman says. “Experiencing this race will definitely help those who return next year.
“I am proud of the results of all of our runners.”
The coach says competing in Abbotsford created a sense of deja vu for him.
“When I ran, high school cross-country provincials were always in Abbotsford, but I had not been to Abbotsford in over 20 years.
“I was last there in 1996 as a runner and now I’m here as a coach, so it’s interesting.”
On the whole, Trueman is quite pleased with how the season has gone.
“What surprised me is that even though we had to do our practices at Quesnel Junior School rather than Correlieu, we still had a healthy number of runners,” he says.
“We started off the season with close to 30 runners and we held over 25 runners for most of the season, so that was good.”
He points out the Junior Girls winning the zone championships was a highlight for him, but he wishes there were some older girls competing on the team too.
“I hope to see some growth in the Senior Girls,” he says. “We had no senior girls at all on the team, so that was a disappointment, but I’m hoping for next year, that will change.”
Trueman also says it was nice seeing a pair of boys through their entire cross-country career. He has coached Christopher Henderson and Adam Nicholas since the two were in Grade 8 and says he wishes them the best of luck in their final year of high school.
READ MORE: Quesnel excels at cross country zones
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