Not since 1974 have two Burnaby/New Westminster schools made such an impact on the B.C. high school track and field championships.
St. Thomas More College placed second in the overall team aggregate - it's best-ever showing at the B.C.s since the provincials were first held in 1967.
New Westminster Secondary School placed fourth overall, the district's best multi-team showing in almost four decades since Burnaby Central won the team event over Mount Douglas, Burnaby South and New Westminster in 1974.
The Knights boys' team also won the school's first-ever provincial track and field title, ensuring the school of the banner with a gold-medal-winning run in the final event of the meet - the 4x400 metre relay.
Collectively, Burnaby and New West schools garnered a total of six gold medals, five silver and four bronze, including three involving relays.
STM proved the big winner with nine medals, including a memorable girls' 400m finish between Burnaby's Zion Corrales-Nelson and Raquel Tjernagel of NWSS - won by the Grade 9 STM sprinter.
New West amassed five medals, including gold medals from Tjernagel in the 200m and Mihailo Stefanovic in the boys' 110m hurdles over runner-up and schoolmate Bogdan Pavel.
Burnaby South's Ahmad Nizamani also won an individual gold in the boys' long jump, outdistancing the competition with the eighth-longest winning leap ever in the 47-year history of the provincial high school meet.
One junior Burnaby runner described STM's first track and field banner as a relief to finally achieve it - STM's coach called the accomplishment a storybook ending for the school's seniors.
But Grade 12 Knight Giovanni Trasolini, who won a bronze medal in the boys' 200m, an eighth-place ribbon in the 100m and two relay gold perhaps captured the mood best.
"It's been a great five years, said the multi-sport athlete. "(The banner) will be up in our gym and I'll be able to look at if for years to come. I'll just relive this moment in my head and hopefully that moment will last forever."
