Spartans Defend ASAA 2A Cross-Country Running Banner and 2A Zone Banner
Cross-Country Zones, STS:
On a wintery October 10, STS hosted the South Central Zone Cross-Country meet, welcoming over 900 runners to our campus. It was a competitive day of running and the Spartans came out with their usual tenacity and grit to take on the challenging conditions. Notable top ten finishes came from Konrad K. ’19 placing 4th in the Senior Boys race, Kiyan S. ’21 and Ethan H. ’21 placing 5th and 6th respectively in the Junior Boys race, and Cooper P. ’20 and Bishneet S. ’20 placing 6th and 8th respectively in the Intermediate Boys race. At the end of the day, we had qualified 15 of our 30 runners for the Provincial meet and secured the zone banner for a ninth straight year. Big thank you’s go out to the many parents and staff who came to volunteer and support the team. We could not have done it without you!
Cross-Country Provincials, Vermilion: What a day! We knew we were in for an extremely tight race but we had no idea just how close it would be. The 15 runners knew that they had to put forth their best effort with every place and every point making a difference.
It was another challenging course with an epic hill at the finish followed by a 700 m stretch across the fields to get to the finish line. Our trails are indeed great training grounds for these challenging courses. With one race remaining, the top three 2A teams were within a couple hundred points of each other. We had just one runner, St. Timothy had two very strong boys, and Raymond also had entries in the last race.
At the awards ceremony, we could barely stand it... it felt like watching a horror movie, not sure if you wanted to stay or go or just look away. Third place went to Raymond and then the announcer said, "In second place, from Calgary... St. Timothy!" The wave of pride came over us as we knew that every runner who put in that extra bit of grit and effort to hold their position or pass one more runner was indeed the difference. The announcer then stated that the banner was won by a mere ten-point margin. After further analysis, it was determined that the margin was somewhat larger at 70 points, but it was still the closest competition in years. (At the provincial meet every runner scores points, simply 1st place runner earns 144 points and so on down to the last runner).
Please join us in congratulating the ASAA 2A XC champions for the ninth straight year: Kiyan S. ‘21, Ethan H. ‘21, Garret W.‘21, Reid L. ‘21, Kate A. ‘21, Rebecca L. ‘21, Nyah C. ‘20, Cooper P. ‘20, Bishneet S. ‘20, Max C. ‘20, Matthew B. ‘20, Matthew Y. ‘20, Megan E. ‘19, Halla K. ’19, and Konrad K. ‘19