A bronze medal by Lockhart MacGregor and more than a dozen top 10 finishes highlighted Valley Royal performances at the BC Athletics Cross Country Championships held Saturday at Clearbrook Park.
Lockhart MacGregor took an early lead in the 9 year old boys division, had a bit of a problem in the middle of the race but finished with a burst for a third place finish. MacGregor’s time over the 1.5-k course was 6:50. Graham Gill also took part in this race and had a strong eighth place finish.
Although they were still in a state of recovery from the Fraser Valley High School Championships that took place just three days prior to this meet, a number of the club’s older athletes had satisfactory performances.
Sarya Ross fought fatigue from Wednesday’s race and came sixth (18:20) in the junior girls’ 5-k competition, a performance that will probably be good enough to gain Ross selection to the BC Team that will take part in the Canadian Championships. Following her over the finish line was Callum Pilgrim with a seventh place finish (18:43).
Helen Crofts, the Canadian international middle distance runner, decided to give cross country a try and had a very respectable run by finishing 8th in the tough senior women’s 6-k run (22:58).
Aidan Bingert continued to show improvement and placed fourth in the Youth boys’ 5-k race (16:46). Bingert was followed across the line by Peter Mitchell (7th—17:00) and Joshua Adhemar (10th—18:43).
Other top 10 performances by Valley Royals athletes included:
Amy Brandt—6th 10-year old girls 2-k
Parker Janzen—7th 11-year old boys 2-k
Rachel Mortimer—4th 12-year old girls 3-k
Josephine Calverly—5th 13-year old girls 3-k
Devon Kular 6th & Liam Bingert 7th –14 year old boys 3-k
Tanner Geary—9th 15-year old boys 3-k
Delaney Chapman 4th and Erica Johnson 7th Youth girls 4-k