It was a senior's day of sorts for the St. Thomas More Knights boys' team at the 47th annual B.C. high school track and field championships.
The Knights, on the strength of 46 points and a first-ever provincial banner in the boys' team aggregate, placed a track-program best runner-up behind Oak Bay in the overall team standings following the B.C. meet at McLeod Athletic Park in Langley on Saturday.
Not since 1989, when STM great Peter Ogilvie led an all-boys' team to fourth place overall, has the small Burnaby independent school fared better at the annual end-of-school meet.
"I'm just so proud of them. It's a storybook ending for our seniors," said Knights track coach David Mattiazzo. "This (result) was won during practice. The program is the strength of our seniors. It was a special group."
Giovanni Trasolini and Sebastian Adugalski capped a five-year high school career together, earning back-to-back gold medals in the 4x100 and 4x400m relays, while also matching the other with a bronze medal in an individual event.
Trasolini placed third in the boys' 200m and eighth in the 100m sprint, while Adugalski was third in the 400m hurdles and seventh in the 400m.
But while winning the school's second third-straight 400m relay gold and a record eighth overall on Friday night was a highlight, earning STM's first gold in the 4x4 since the Ogilvie days was perhaps sweeter.
"That's the way we dreamed of ending our B.C. high school careers," said Adugalski directly after running the winning anchor leg. It's a dream come true. It's more than we could have asked for."
Mattiazzo had other adjectives to describe the effort.
"That was 100 per cent heart," Mattiazzo said. "(Sebastian) doing three 400m in one day is unheard of at any level, and finding something inside to keep going is just inspirational."
After Massimo Pozzolo's strong opening leg, Francis Klimo took charge," Mattiazzo said. Trasolini then passed off to Adugalski in a reversal of roles to how the two STM seniors finished off an earlier gold in the record-settig 400m relay the day before.
In the field events, Nico Repole earned a bronze in the boys' shot put, heaving the lead ball a personal-best 14.45m. He also had a PB in the discus to finish in eighth place.
Malcom Lee, who shared gold in the sprint relay with Pozzolo, Adugalski and Trasolini, earned sixth-place points in the 100m after qualifying in a very fast heat, where the top-three runners all clocked under 11.2 seconds.
Brandon Lee also placed eighth in the javelin.
In the girls' events, Grade 9 sensation Zion Corrales-Nelson was just a step or two behind winning a most outstanding athlete mention.
Corrales-Nelson outkicked New Westminster Secondary rival Raquel Tjernagel in the 400m final in 54.94 seconds, the ninth-fastest all-time winning time. She also placed second in the 200m to Tjernagel and runner-up in the 100m to the meet's most inspirational athlete Georgia Ellenwood of Langley. The 14-year-old also anchored STM's 4x100m relay of Rachel Shuttleworth, Elexis Llewellyn and Jordana Blaeser to a bronze medal.
Dominique Booker also placed sixth in the 100m hurdles and Kamila Wojciechowski was eighth in the shot put.
"It was a great weekend and I'm glad to be here. ... It definitely feels good," said Corrales-Nelson. "It's getting better every single year. We're getting personal bests and that's great."
The STM girls' team finished in a tie for sixth place with Earl Marriott Secondary, both with 36 points.
