Earl Marriott’s Kathryn Van Ryswyk won gold twice, and a pair of Lord Tweedsmuir Secondary athletes combined for five medals as the two schools both placed inside the top 10 at BC High School Track and Field Championships over two days in Langley last week.
On Friday, Van Ryswyk took top spot in the senior girls pole vault, clearing the bar at 3.45 m – besting the second-place competitor by 35 cm. Van Ryswyk, was the defending champion in the event, having won gold last year with a mark of 3.1 m.
A day later, the EMS senior scored her second gold medal of the event, winning the senior girls 100-m hurdles in 14.45 seconds, eight-tenths of a second quicker than Tumber Ridge’s Laura Sharman, who claimed silver.
Tweedsmuir, meanwhile, was led by Ben Ingvaldson, who won a gold and two bronze medals, and runner Jasmine Grant, who also had a pair of bronze-medal finishes.
Along with a fifth-place performance from the school’s 4x100m relay team, Lord Tweedsmuir totaled 38 points at the two-day meet, tying for 10th place with Langley Secondary. Earl Marriott was ninth overall, with 45 total points.
Ingvaldson won his gold medal in the senior boys shotput, with a throw of 15.64-m.
Ingvaldson was also the bronze medalist in the hammer throw and discus. His best effort was 51.93-m toss in the hammer, while his throw of 45.26-m in the discus edged the fourth-place athlete by eight centimetres.
Grant won her bronze medals with two personal best times, bouncing back from a Grade 11 year that saw her performance slowed by illness.
“Last year I had mono for three months before (provincials), so I ran the 100 and 200 but not the 400,” she said. “I didn’t make the final in either, it was a lot to overcome. So this year was a bit of a comeback, I guess. It felt pretty good.”
She was third in both the 200-m race with a time of 25.76 seconds, and the 400-m in 57.76 seconds.
“I was so so happy in the end to get a couple of medals in my Grade 12 year.”
Other medallists from Earl Marriott included middle-distance runner Ally Ginther, who won bronze in the senior girls 3,000-m with a time of 10 minutes, 16.59 seconds. Teammate Sarah Korpach won silver in the 400-m hurdles.
The Elgin Park Orcas finished with a pair of individual medals, as Jake Hanna won silver in the 400-m with a time of 49.6 seconds, while Danielle Steer won bronze in the girls 800-m. Max Hanna, meanwhile, finished fifth in javelin to round out the school’s top showings.
Semiahmoo Secondary had no medallists in senior events. Top results for Semi included eighth-place finishes for Brandon Figueroa (senior boys 1,500-m), Katherine Reiss (senior girls triple jump) and Richard Roberts (senior boys 400-m hurdles).
White Rock Christian Academy also had no medals to report, with Glen Johnston’s fifth-place finish in the senior boys decathlon being the top mark.
- with files from Rick Kupchuk