R.F. Staples track and field athletes nearly had a banner day at the zone meet May 24 at Foote Field in Edmonton.
The team of 20 athletes put on a show, winning 16 medals and finishing second overall, coming only eight points short of claiming the zone banner, said coach Allan Hope.
“All the athletes did very well and there were a lot of personal bests,” he said.
In all, 13 members of the team will be making the trip back down to Edmonton June 1-2 for the provincial meet.
Leading the way were Jessica Martin and Maya von Rennenkampff, who each earned two golds for their efforts, Hope said.
Briana Carlyon won the most medals amongst her teammates, with one gold and two silvers. Patrick MacLachlan claimed two medals of his own with a gold and a silver, while Darien Ringuette won two silvers herself.
Amelia Kulmatyski won the school’s seventh gold, while James Coleman, Dana van Sevenendt and Keenan Wildeman each earned individual silver medals.
Rounding out the medal haul was silver medal won by the boys’ 4x100 metre relay team consisting of Kees Koeman, Nick Toporowski, Cam Teske and Aaron Graf.
In addition to the medallists, Hope said there were several other athletes including Honey Tkachyk, James Hodder, Ashley Booth, Conrad Hertz-Kleptow, Scott Cannard, Keith Stonehouse and Harley Knor who came up just short of the podium, but who nonetheless competed as hard as they could.
The school’s results speak to how strong an athletic program R.F. Staples has built over the years, he added.
“We have a very strong school of athletes,” he said. “They’re just very athletic individuals and they’re very easy going and easy to coach.”
Looking towards the provincial meet, Hope said he believes there are several athletes who have a “pretty good shot” at emerging at the top of the heap in their events.
While anything can happen in a one- or two-day meet, he’s confident in his charges.
“We’ll see how things go, but I think we have a pretty strong chance at bringing home some medals at provincials,” he said.
With the track and field season drawing to a close, Hope said he’s happy with how things have played out so far.
“It was a solid effort by everyone on the team and I am very proud of each and every one of them,” he said. “They are a great group of athletes and we had a lot of fun.”
