A few hours after the provincial high school championships wrapped up, Zach Wyatt was having sushi with his family when he realized what had happened.
“Hey, wait a minute,” he said.
“We won.”
Wyatt was a member of the R.E. Mountain Senior Boys team, and they thought they had placed second overall at the 2018 B.C. High School Track and Field Championships, held over three days at McLeod Athletic Park in the Township.
Based on the published point totals, the Mission team had edged them by a single point.
But when Wyatt added it up, the R.E. Mountain Team had won with 49 points while Mission had 40.
Somehow, 10 points had not been tallied.
What followed was a scramble to confirm the numbers and adjust the results, hours after the last event of the competition.
Coach Debbi McKinnon ended up driving to Vancouver to retrieve the banner.
The reason for the mistake isn’t clear, but one theory suggests it was because of a built-in delay in the electronic system used to tally points, which is there deliberately to allow time for challenges of results.
Whatever the cause, Wyatt and his teammates did not get to stand on the podium with the first-place banner on Saturday.
On Monday afternoon, there was a do-over of sorts, and the four stood together for their picture with the banner for a Times camera as the recognized top AAA Boys teams at the stadium with family, friends and coach present.
Langley competitors generally did well at the championships, which saw 2,400 athletes and 400 coaches competing in the three-day event that wrapped up Saturday.
Credo Christian was second in the A Boys teams, half a point behind top-place Nanaimo Christian, and the Walnut Grove team finished top of the Junior division (male and combined points totals).
Walnut Grove competitors harvested the most top-three finishes, including firsts in the Mens Junior 4×400 Metre Relay — breaking by two seconds a record set 30 years earlier — and the Mens 4×100 Metre Relay Junior.
In the Womens Junior 4×100 Metre Relay, Langley Fundamental took first, while Walnut Grove placed second.
Kevin Hughes from Langley Secondary was first in the Mens Senior 400 Metre Run.
R.E. Mountain took gold in the Senior Boys 4x400m.
R.E. Mountain took first and second place in the finals of the Mens Senior 2,000 Metre Steeplechase, courtesy of Zach Wyatt and Tate Wyatt.
Zach Wyatt broke the record for the Senior Boys Steeplechase — a record that stood for 27 years. He also won the “Outstanding Male Performance” award.
Jordan Schmit from R.E. Mountain won the Senior Boys 800m.
READ MORE: Langley’s Wyatt twins ready to earn their stripes as Tigers
Dani Kurylyk of Walnut Grove took first in the Womens Grade 8 Long Jump while Jaime Rettig of Brookswood was second.
In the Womens Junior Long Jump, Sheleena Wiley of Langley Fundamental took first and Holly Harrison of Walnut Grove was third.
