Brittany Hepp was among four track and field athletes from Olds High School that came away with a medal from the Alberta Schools Athletic Association Track and Field Championships held Friday and Saturday in Edmonton.
Hepp got a gold in the senior pole vault with a final jump of two metres, 60 centimetres.
“That was pretty awesome. She was in the zone the whole time,” said Adam Hogarth, OHS track coach.
Alex Groves got a silver in the intermediate girls pole vault, while Kevin Spicer claimed silver in the Grade 10 boys pole vault. Shaelyn Moritz claimed a bronze in the Grade 10 girls pole vault.
“That's good for vault. We work hard on that here, we have the equipment to do so,” Hogarth said.
Courtnay Schafer placed eighth in the intemediate girls pole vault, while Daniela Aguilar finished fifth in the 800 metres and sixth in the 400 metres with personal bests both races. Carson Jorgensen finished sixth in the 3,000 metres and 11th in the 3,000 metres with personal best times in both.
Hogarth said considering that OHS has to compete against club programs in Edmonton and Calgary, those are solid results. He added that those results should encourage younger athletes that want to try track and field at the school.
“We're being edged out by the City of Edmonton and the City of Calgary, so when it gets to that point we're doing very good for a small-community school.
Meanwhile, a total of 38 athletes from Olds will be attending the Junior South Central Zone Track and Field Championships in Calgary tomorrow. The athletes qualified for the championships by placing either first or second in their events at the Chinook's Edge South Athletic Association championships held Tuesday in Sundre.
A total of 22 athletes from Deer Meadow School qualified for the championships, while 11 from Olds High School and five from Olds Koinonia Christian School qualified.
Jeff Clattenberg, coach of the DMS track team, said the contingent from Deer Meadow performed excellently, especially in the medium- to long-distance races. A total of eight Grade 7 students, and 14 Grade 8 students qualified for the zone meet.
“We had a really good showing. We had a number of students do really good at the kind of medium- to long-distance races,” he said.
Over at OHS, Hogarth said both the girls 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 relay teams made the zone meet by placing second in their respective races while their counterparts on the boys side both also qualified for zones by winning their respective races. “Eleven out of 20 athletes placing first or second is a pretty high-quality team in my opinion. That kind of feeds well into the senior high track team for next year when provincials is on the line,” he said, noting the zone meet is the end of the season for the junior track team.
At OKCS, Ken Terpstra, the school's track coach, said he was pleased with the results from the school's athletes. Kayla Jansen won the Grade 7 javelin event, while Janelle Graham finished first in the Grade 8 800 metres, second in the Grade 8 1,000 metres and second in the 200 metres. Anna Crowe finished second in the Grade 8 long jump, while Ethan Moench finished first in the Grade 8 high jump and Brielle Jansen finished second in the Grade 9 javelin.
“Overall, the meet went well … the five athletes we are sending to zones are all strong track athletes so we are looking forward to zones,” he said.
"That was pretty awesome. (Brittany Hepp) was in the zone the whole time."Adam Hogarth, coach, OHS track and field team
