A big congratulations goes out to each and every Valley Royals athlete who competed at this past weekend’s BC High School Track and Field Championships. You should all feel very proud for competing at the top high school level in British Columbia.

With regards to our distance group we had a fantastic weekend with virtually every athlete running a personal best or very close to. Adrianna Buitelaar finished off her high school career with a stunning performance in the 3000m smashing the previous British Columbia high school record by 10 seconds. She followed this up by anchoring her MEI senior girls to a team championship in the 4x400m relay. Gurpartap Sandhu, Ethan Koehn, Jonah Dyck, and Maggie Epp also made definitive statements in their final high school meet. Gurpartap finished 4th in shot put, 6th in the 100m hurdles, and 7th in the long jump – all before bringing home the gold in her 4x400m relay. She was a team leader in winning the MEI senior women the overall provincial title. Maggie ran a fantastic race and season PR to grab the bronze medal in the 800m in a very closely contested race, and Ethan ran a huge PR of 6:09 in the senior steeple to finish 5th. Jonah Dyck did us proud in both the 3000m and steeplechase.

Our rising stars also served notice. Laken Olson had a fantastic meet rising to the occasion with big personal best performances and a gold medal run in the junior boys 3000m and a silver medal run in the 1500m. Sebby Psihogios won double gold in the grade 8 1500m and 3000m running the majority of the 1500m with one shoe half on. I will never forget the image of him kicking off the shoe in the last 30 meters in order to hold off his opponent to win by a tenth of a second. Jayda Tielmann had a huge breakthrough in the junior girls 800m, improving her personal best by 8 seconds to grab the bronze in a very closely contested race. Lyla Teer and Tegan Setter both ran fantastic PRs, with Lyla running 4:47 in the 1500m and Tegan running 2:27 in the 800m. Look out for these fine athletes in the future. Parks Siemens had a strong meet showing he is developing well after injury and Sammy Neufeld, William Acker, and William Steiger finished strongly with personal best performances or close to it in their events.

I cannot stress enough how proud I am of each and every one of our athletes. If you run well, thank the people in your group who drag you out for that run when you don’t really feel like it or provide the humor and hard work ethic that sets a tone in practice that allows you to succeed. Competition at the provincial level is demanding, and each and every one of you rose to the occasion and deserved to be there.

So very,  very, well done! – Coach Scott