The heydays of Burnaby Central high school track and field may be over, when the Wildcats won their record 15th provincial team championship in 2000, but don't tell that to the newest crop of up-and-comers.
Nathan Mah of Central won a medal of every shade in the Grade 8 and 9 events, run in conjunction with the B.C. high school track and field championships at McLeod Athletic Park in Langley on Saturday.
Mah won gold in the boys' 200-metre dash, in a winning time of 23.63. He also took the silver medal at 100m.
Mah then shared in a bronze-medal run in the 1,600m relay with the Central team of Marco Sherwood, Joshua Lim and twin brother Matthew Mah.
"Our coach just said, 'Go out and get as much of a lead for the next person as you can,'" said Nathan.
"I had the easy part," added Matthew following the group's personal-best 34.88 run. "I just ran as fast as I could."
Central's 24 points lifted the team to sixth place in the boys' aggregate and 12th overall.
St. Thomas More finished fifth in the combined aggregate standings, with the boys contributing 21 points and the girls 15 to the school's 36-point total.
Samantha Landoldt won the girls' shot put with a throw of almost 10 metres. She also placed fourth in the discus.
Alessandro Pozzolo was fourth in the boys' 400 and sixth at the 800m distance.
Andrew Juni came seventh in the boys' 1,500m, edging out STM classmate Fraser Stewart, who also placed eighth in the 3,000m.
The Knights relay teams finished fourth in the 1,600m and fifth in the four-man 400m sprint.
"There were a lot of nice surprises," said STM track coach David Mattiazzo.
