Seven members of Ocean Athletics Track and Field Club were honoured earlier this month at B.C. Athletics’ annual awards banquet.
Three members – Meghan Palesch, Alison Williams and Max Hanna – were among those named as midget athletes of the year; Deon Clifford was named 2010 youth male cross-country runner of the year; Luc Bruchet was named the top junior male cross-country runner for 2010, while Maureen De St. Croix was named masters female top cross-country runner of the year.
Another member of Ocean Athletics’ stable of runners, Samantha Walkow, was also honoured for being a part of Canada’s junior cross-country team that competed in Poland last year.
Fellow Peninsula runner, Earl Marriott Secondary senior Katie Reid – who runs for the Richmond Kajaks and recently signed to compete at UCLA next season – was named 2010 youth female athlete of the year.
The awards cap an impressive season for OA members.
Palesch won a gold medal – and set a new record – in pentathlon at the B.C. Summer Games, and also set a new Canadian mark in 200-m hurdles at Legion National Championships last summer.
Williams, meanwhile, was second in the 800-m at both the B.C. Games and Legions; Hanna won a silver medal in javelin at the Legions.
Clifford, who last year ran as a junior against older competition, finished sixth at B.C. High School Cross-Country Championships, and won silver in boys 3,000-m and bronze in 1,500 at high school track and field provincials.
Bruchet was second at both B.C. and Canadian Junior Cross-Country Championships.