Cross-country runners from Salmon Arm Secondary hit the track and earned some of the top spots in the 2018 Okanagan Valley Cross-Country Championships.
A total of 264 athletes from 40 schools competed on a warm, sunny course at Stake Lake, with the event providing a chance to qualify for the B.C. championships Nov. 3 in Nanaimo. The junior boys category at the valley championships was the largest with 100 runners competing.
“I was certainly pleased with how the team did, they represented Salmon Arm well,” says coach Dave Van Bergeyk. “We had two second-place finishes by sisters Kate Milne and Lys Milne, and then we ended up qualifying senior girls, senior boys and junior girls teams to go to provincials. They are pretty happy I think with their results and looking forward to a good trip to Nanaimo for the provincials.”
In the junior girls’ category, Lys Milne raced to a second-place finish and Kasha Vitoratos finished close behind in third. Finishing just outside of the top four, Samantha Vukadinovic placed fifth overall in the category.
Also in the junior girls’ category, Julianne Moore placed 11th, Sophia Torrie of Shuswap Middle School placed 13th, Talia Brown placed 16th, Sophia Van Varseveld took 18th, Sophie Hamilton placed 19th, Meaghan Kujat placed 22nd, Teslyn Bates placed 35th, Hillary Vukadinovic placed 39th, Maya Hwang placed 40th, Trinity Blacklock placed 43rd, Katie Thielman took 44th, Holland McTavish placed 45th and Taylor Parker placed 48th.
Related: Salmon Arm dominates cross-country meet
In the junior boys’ category, Finn Rodwell placed highest out of the Salmon Arm runners, taking 12th place overall. Max Angrove placed 15th, Trond May placed 20th, Sam Calkins placed 21st, Frankie Ayotte placed 23rd, Jonah Lazar placed 37th, Sean Jurasek placed 42nd, Isaac Ellis placed 44th, Bryce Lehmann placed 46th, Daniel Hall placed 47th, Parker Lehmann placed 48th, Eric Moore placed 60th, Ray Spooner placed 66th, Jacob Hepburn placed 74th, Derek Tsang placed 77th and Nicholas Zhou placed 83rd.
In the senior girls’ category, Kate Milne came in second place, Erin Lavery placed fourth, Maggie Beckner placed fifth and Maia Vitoratos placed sixth to round out Salmon Arm’s top 10 finishers in the category. Also from Salmon Arm, Teagan Findlay placed 15th, Megan Hart placed 27th and Madeline Wiebe placed 30th.
In the senior boys’ category, Stephen Moore was the lone top-10 finisher with his ninth place run. Ben Van Bergeyk placed 11th, Calvin Hepburn placed 13th, Elijah Lazar placed 18th, Richard Jurasek placed 23rd, Jackson Welder placed 30th, Caleb Cox took 33rd and Max Meinhardt placed 36th.
In overall results, the SAS Jackson junior and SAS Sullivan senior girls’ teams placed first overall in team scoring, while the junior girls’ team from Shuswap Middle School placed sixth. The junior boys’ teams from SAS Jackson and Shuswap Middle School placed fifth and seventh, respectively, and the senior boys’ team from SAS Sullivan placed second overall in their category.
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