Despite posting personal bests, six Westlock runners failed to medal at the Alberta Schools’ Athletic Association Provincial Cross Country Championships in Edmonton Oct. 21.
Marking St. Mary School’s first appearance at provincials in years, Jaiden Romanuik finished in 27th out of 135 junior boys and Ashley Tymkow was 12th out of 123 senior girls.
“It was a good experience,” said St. Mary head coach Darcy Romanuik. “I haven’t been back to cross country in a while. It was great to be there again, it’s amazing to see how many kids come out to run. We had a lot of fun and did really well.
“We weren’t strong in numbers, but we were strong in heart.”
In the same race as Tymkow, three runners from R.F. Staples took to the trails, with Shaye Weise and Cassandra Belanger clocking in at 113th and 114th, and Swedish exchange student Moa Johannson who won a bronze for R.F. Staples in the zone finals in Edson Oct. 11, finished 92nd.
Grade 11 student Joshua Brown finished 116 out of 127 in the intermediate boys category.
“It was a good day to be outside today,” said R.F. Staples head coach Leanne Huppertz. “It was good competition and very fast paced. It was the kids first time at provincials, so it was huge for them to do a personal best.”
She noted that a lot of the runners at provincials were more specialized, whereas all her athletes were not just runners but also into other sports like volleyball and swimming.
“These were the top runners in the province,” she said. “You’ve got kids who train all year round and we’ve only been going since the start of September.”
Romanuik said he was proud of his runners, noting that he had been putting a lot of effort into getting the St. Mary program back into full stride. He said he was planning to start up practice runs for interested runners in the spring.
