Briana Shymanski/Rocky View Publishing

Bert Church's Samantha Rutledge clears the bar in the girls senior high jump event at the Senior High Zone Championship track meet, May 23, at the Foothills Athletic Park in Calgary. Rutledge advanced to zones after placing first in the event at the Rocky View Sports Association's (RVSA) divisional track meet, May 15.

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Local high school track athletes headed to zones

It was a successful showing for the George McDougall track team at the Rocky View Sports Association (RVSA) track and field divisional meet, May 15. Sixty-five athletes participated from the school with 15 advancing to the zones.

“It was a good year for the team,” said George McDougall Track Coach Ryan Haggarty. “We were missing a lot of our athletes because we had a lot of kids go to Disneyland (for a band concert), so it made for a smaller roster than we would often have.”

Fifteen-year-old Bowen Lewis was the only George McDougall athlete to win an aggregate award. He won the juvenile boys award thanks to first-place finished in the 100-metre, 200-metre, 400-metre and 4x400-metre relay events.

“I felt that it went pretty good,” said Lewis. “I was happy with myself and proud (of winning the award.”

The ninth-grader has been running track since Grade 7, and despite 2012 being his first year at the high school level, Haggarty believes that Lewis has a great future in the sport.

“He has a lot of potential” said Haggarty. “He’s a very fast athlete and a passionate athlete when it comes to sports. It was good to see him be able to dominate an individual sport rather than a team (one), like football, which is his passion.”

Lewis will compete for a trip to provincials at the Junior High Zone Championships, June 6, at Glenmore Athletic Park in Calgary. Joining him will be Chris Sanchez who placed first in the boys junior 100-metre and 200-metre races. In the girls juvenile category, Hayley Wenass placed second in the 800-metre and 1,500-metre runs and Teagan Williems placed first in the 80-metre hurdles and 4x100-metre relay events. Breanne McPhee won gold in the javelin throw and silver in shot put, while Kaleigh Fisk brought home three silver medals in the 100-metre race, high jump and long jump events.

Trey Lidbury from Bert Church High School won the boys senior aggregate award after placing first in the high jump and long jump events. Brandon Sadler placed second in both events. Sarah Abbott advanced to zones with a first-place finish in the girls juvenile 1,500-metre race and a second-place finish in the 3,000-metre race. Jenny Yackel won silver in the girls junior 200-metre dash and gold in the 80-metre hurdles while Hayley Sera placed first in the girls intermediate long jump event and second in the triple jump event.

The Senior High Zone Championships were held May 23 at Foothills Athletic Park in Calgary. (Results were not available at press time.