New Westminster Secondary School made B.C. high school track and field history, winning the provincial championships on Saturday.
The small New West team – including outstanding female athlete of the meet, 15-year-old junior Nina Schultz, and double-gold sprint champion Raquel Tjernagel – garnered 89 total points to nip defending titlist and 10-time champion Oak Bay by a single point in aggregate team scoring at the 47th annual provincial meet in Langley.
St. Thomas More Knights star junior Zion Corrales-Nelson was prevented a sweep of her three sprint events by Tjernagel, who nipped the Burnaby runner for first place in both the senior girls’ 100 and 200 metres.
Corrales-Nelson did win a gold medal in her third event to go with her two silvers, running the second-fastest time in the 400m in the history of the provincial high school meet.
The Grade 10 runner clocked a sizzling 54.18 in the metric quarter mile, second only to Magee’s Camille Noel’s record time of 53.66 set back in 1992.
Male sprinter Frances Klimo made the final of both the 100 and 200m, finishing in fifth and sixth place despite fast times of 11.27 and 22.88, respectively.
Junior long distance runner Fraser Stewart won gold in the boys’ steeplechase and was fifth in the 3,000m.
Noah Usherwood leaped to fourth place in the senior boys’ triple jump and Brandon Lee was seventh in the javelin.
Samantha Landolt won a silver in the junior girls’ javelin and was fifth in the shot put.
Giovanna Janes also medalled, winning a bronze in the Grade 8 girls’ javelin.
Juniors Ben Steele and Alessandro Pozzolo were fourth and fifth, respectively, in the boys’ javelin and 400m.
Annika Gatto placed sixth in the Grade 8 girls’ shot.
“I’m happy with the performance of our team overall,” said STM track coach David Mattiazzo. “While we didn’t win a banner this year, we had more students who succeeded and participated. We brought 42 athletes to this and had a lot in the top eight.”
Burnaby South and Burnaby Central athletes also came away with medals in Langley.
The South Grade 8 boys’ 4x100m relay team, of Kurtis Li, Kyle Gee, Jacob Fetchko and Diego Medrano, won a gold medal, shaving nearly two seconds off its seed time.
Medrano also placed second in the 100m in a time of 12.07 and was fifth at 200m.
Central’s Nathan Mah won a silver in the junior boys’ 200m in a time of 23.08 and a bronze in the 100m at 11.64. Mah, who placed eighth in the individual 400m, also helped the Wildcats 4x400m relay team to a third-place medal.
Other Burnaby finalists included: Alpha’s Tomi Fagbangbe in the junior boys’ high jump; Central’s Raquel Milosevljevic in the senior girls’ 200m, Marco Sherwood in the junior boys’ triple jump and Charles Yue in the Grade 8 boys’ 800m; Lauren Gaffney placed ninth in the junior girls’ javelin for Burnaby Mountain; Bridgett Flight of Byrne Creek was 13th in the senior girls’ shot; Carver Christian’s Lauren Vanee was sixth in the junior girls’ javelin; and Laurence Ma competed in the senior boys’ 3,000m for Moscrop.
