The Valley Royals distance group traveled to Nanaimo this past weekend to compete in the Club Provincial Championships.
Joshua Carsience has been having a stellar season and once again he stepped up and ran a strong race in the championships. Josh placed 2nd in the 13-year old boys division, just 13 seconds off the lead, covering the 3km course in the very good time of 9 minutes 35 seconds. His teammate Kai MacKenzie also had a great race placing 8th in a time of 10.17.
The girls were led by Rachel Mortimer, who once again showed why she is considered to be one of the provinces best middle distance runners in her age category. Rachel covered the 3km course in 9.58, finishing in second for the 14 year old girls age class, just 11 seconds off the lead. Gurleen Gill and Hannah Grossmann were in the same race placing 20 and 24 respectively.
Daniel James, the lone Valley Royal in the Midget Boys division, ran his best race of the season placing 7th covering the 3km course in 9.12.
Kate Sokolowski and Harneet Uppal competed in the Youth Women’s division placing 18th and 19th with finishing times over the 4km course of 16.18 and 19.24 respectively.
Best known as an 800-meter runner, Tanner Geary put forth his best effort of this cross country season in the very competitive Youth Men’s 5-k race. For most of the distance Tanner stayed with the top runners in the competition and was able to finish in 13th place with a time of 16.42.
Erica Johnson raced 6km in the Junior Girls Division placing 17th in a time of 23.31. Many of the athletes will be competing for their high school in the Fraser Valleys later on this week.