OLDS — Five local throwing athletes are expected to find out at the end of the month if they made the Alberta Summer Games team.
They gave it their best shot during a meet held in Calgary May 13-14.
Head coach Rachel Andres says those who qualified will be announced May 30.
Throwing events in track and field include discus and shot put.
Competing in the Calgary meet in the U16 and U18 categories were Liam Banks, Abigail Ripco, Jett Rosch, Dayley Reimer and Natalie Harrison.
Head coach Rachel Andres also competed.
“It was a great meet overall,” Andres wrote in an email.
Ripco placed second in U18 javelin with a new personal best of nearly three metres (m), tossing it 27.67m.
She also finished sixth in U18 discus with a toss of 20.97m.
“During the course of competition she bettered her personal best four times,” Andres wrote. She has big goals for javelin this year and started off great.”
Rosch competed in the boys U18 division.
He placed fourth in discus with a throw of 30.90m.
“This was his first meet at new implement weights. He threw a one-kilogram (k) discus last year and is throwing a 1.5k discus this year,” Andres wrote.
Rosch also threw javelin as an extra event, placing fifth in that sport with a toss of 20.31m.
Harrison competed in U16 discus and shot put and threw new personal bests in both events.
In discus she placed first with a throw of 21.80m. In shot put she finished in second place with a toss of 8.35m.
“Natalie has made leaps in her technique recently, especially in discus. I’m expecting her distances to keep climbing throughout this season,” Andres wrote.
Andres competed during the meet as well, winning the women’s open discus category on Saturday with a throw of 52.12m.
“Personally, I was hoping for more, but nursing my baby girl during warmups and between throws tends to tighten me up when I need to be loose,” Andres wrote. “Still, it is a three-metre improvement on the last meet so (I’m) moving in the right direction.”
Reimer also competed in the open women’s discus.
“This was her first time competing as an open age athlete,” Andres wrote.
Reimer placed first in javelin with a throw of 41.04m, winning by more than 10m.
She finished second in shot put with a throw of 10.80m.
Reimer also competed in the hammer throw, an event she’s only practised a few times, Andres says.
In that, she threw the hammer 28m “which was excellent considering it was her first try with this event,” Andres wrote.
It will be a busy few months for Andres.
She’s coaching athletes from École Olds High School and École Deer Meadow School as well as some Carstairs and Sundre athletes.
Her regular athletes currently are Ripco, Rosch, Harrison, Reimer and Banks as well as Alexis Johnson, Audrey Veilleux, and Adam Jorgenson.
Andres and Ripco took part in their first competition in Edmonton in early May.
“It was cold and windy. After the nice weather all week, it was disappointing to have bad weather for the competition," Andres wrote in an email.
Ripco threw discus in competition for the first time and placed second in the U18 category with a throw of 21.68 metres (m).
“She is grasping the technique very quickly so I have no doubts she’ll be rapidly climbing in distance as the season goes on,” Andres wrote.
Andres did very well too.
She placed first in the open division with a throw of 49.37 m.
“Not the distance I was hoping to start the outdoor season with, but it does mean the distances can only go up from here,” she wrote.
