OLDS — Six École Olds High School (ÉOHS) senior track athletes qualified for provincials during zones, held May 22 in Calgary.
The provincials will be held June 7-8 in Edmonton.
ÉOHS athletes headed to provincials are Devyn Rice in triple jump, Sydney Van Ginhoven in 3,000 metre (m) and 1,500m events, Kepler Fitzner in 400m and 800m, Lugereke Shamvu in high jump. Two throwing athletes also qualified in discus: Jett Rosch and Jorja Schroeder.
A huge shoutout to our senior track team who competed in the cold, rainy, and windy conditions all day Wednesday,” ÉOHS athletic director and track coach Jeff Clattenburg wrote in an email.
“Not only did they show amazing spirit and resilience throughout the unfavourable weather but they did amazing and had great results,” he added.
“All athletes should be proud of what they accomplished and an extra round of applause to our six athletes who qualified for provincials.”
Clattenburg also noted that the school’s junior track team competed in divisionals in Sundre May 23, also in “poor weather and track conditions.”
“All of our Grade 9 athletes have qualified for zones and will be competing next week in Calgary,” he wrote.
Throwing coach Rachel Andres says Rosch and Schroeder each finished first in discus despite those rainy conditions mentioned by Clattenburg.
Schroeder punched her ticket to the provincials with a throw that beat the competition by just one centimetre.
Andres says a third athlete could also have qualified for provincials in javelin, had it not been for what she called a “bad officiating call.”
In an email, Andres said Abigail Ripco missed out on provincials due to “a bad officiating call that would have given her top 2 in javelin and came in third.”
“The rules for what constitutes a mark in javelin were not being followed and they made up their own rules, saying the javelin had to pierce the ground to count as a mark, when the actual rules are that a javelin only needs to roll over by one degree and touch down tip first. Hers visibly rolled over by eight or nine degrees,” Andres wrote.
“I am also a sanctioned official and fight these bad calls when I can. But in school meets it’s always bad. She’s the fourth athlete I have had miss provincials in javelin because of bad calls.
“There was another athlete I was working with later in the day that had the same bad call made.
“But his mom was videoing every single throw of his landing and we were able to challenge successfully with the proof it was called badly and get a rethrow.”
Five ÉOHS senior athletes qualified for zones during divisionals, held May 15 in Sundre: Rosch, Ripco, Schroeder, Jill Wright and Saffire Coron-Ladines.
