Our Valley Royals athletes had a strong showing at the BC High School Cross Country Championships this weekend, in Victoria.
Starting to round back into form after a season set back by injury Sam May ran his best race of the season with a 3rd place finish in a field of approximately 300 of BC’s top junior boys. With a very strong finishing kick Sam defeated the East Valley Champion Bernardo Sada to grab the bronze behind the Vancouver Island Champion Charlie Mlotshwa, and South Valley Champion Stephanus Snyman.
Our junior boys as a group had a fantastic showing with Will Van Schagen stepping up his game yet again to grab the 12th spot, which was an incredible performance for this middle distance runner over four kilometers.
Miles Graham, Arata Nakanishi and Riley Simmonds finished 16th, 18th and 19th to give us five runners in the top 20. Remarkable performances for all these boys.
Despite not having her best race Adrianna Buitelaar recorded a very strong 14th place performance in the junior girls race, and Zoe Unger showed well to take the 16th position in the senior girls. Mackenzie Lascelle and Mark Molina ran well in the senior boys to finish 17th and 22nd.
Athletes that have made huge jumps in performance this season were Arie Wassenaar and Tristian Steiger, who ran with the best in the province to finish in the 28th and 29th positions, as well as Jasmine Halwas and Jonah Dyck who stepped it up to qualify for provincials and finished 117th and 143rd in fields approaching 300 runners.
So very well done Royals. – Coach Scott
