Geary Leads Royals in Yakima

When Coach Sue Northey announced to her athletes that the Holder Relays Meet Director had asked that her athletes and coaches form a group and sing “Oh Canada”  as part of the Opening Ceremonies.  Tanner Geary stepped forward and volunteered as the choir leader and armed with a microphone and backed by the other nine athletes and three coaches that had made the trip, he led the Abbotsford group in belting out a boisterous rendition of our national anthem that did our group proud.

Then a couple of hours later Geary turned his attention to performing well on the track and he came through in great style by winning the mile run in a time of 4:26.30.  Geary followed his coach’s direction by biding his time through the first 400-meters and then putting on a finishing burst that provided him with a
comfortable win.

A pair of club steeplechasers won medals at the meet.  Kris Biela ran his first ever 2000m steeple chase event and put forth an excellent effort to finish third (6:22) crossing the finish line just three seconds back of the winner.  Not to be outdone, Erica Johnson donning a cape so she could fly over the water jump, placed second in the girls’ 2000-meter steeplechase.      

Rachel Mortimer ran the first lap of her mile run a bit fast and it took a toll on her during the later stages of the race.   Mortimer made up some lost ground in the latter part of the race and finished in third place (5:21.88).   Teammates Kate Sokolowski and Gurleen Gill also took part in the mile finishing 11th and 23rd positions respectively.

Daniel James was relegated to the second line in the very crowded mile run (won by Geary) and did not recover from the early jostling for position.  James did run strongly over the last lap putting forth a good finishing kick to finish in a time of 4:43.00.

The club also took part in both distance medley relays.  The boys team had a solid performance led by James who ran his 800-meter leg in 2:01 and at the finish the team was second just three seconds behind the winner.   The Royals girls’ distance
medley team came fourth in their event.

All in all it was a great experience for the Valley Royal contingent that got to compete in a huge American meet (1500 athletes took part) on a very warm and pleasant spring day.