While they didn't repeat last year's banner success, the 2022 cross-country high-school provincial championship still produced an "A-plus" day for the St. Timothy Thunder, according to the high school's running coach, Travis Cummings.
Sending six student-athletes to compete in the 2A provincial meet Oct. 15 at the Enoch Cree Nation, the St. Timothy Thunder finished in second place behind the Raymond High School Comets.
“To be honest, I think we did as best as we possibly could have given the numbers," said Cummings.
“We won 2A provincials last year, and I know some of the guys on the provincial team last year were hoping to repeat it this year, but as far as I’m concerned, they did as well as they possibly could have done. I thought it was an A-plus day and was really happy with it.”
St. Tim's finished with 695.11 points – approximately 180 points behind Raymond, who finished with 875.62. Rounding out the podium was Strathcona-Tweedsmuir, which finished third with 606.57 points.
“At some point, it just becomes a numbers game because we’re a small school,” Cummings said.
“We don’t always qualify a lot [of runners], but why we do show well is because the kids who do qualify usually finish quite high up and score a lot of points for the team.”
The podium placement showing marked the Cochrane Catholic school's sixth silver medal in provincial cross-country since 2012, according to Cummings. With a decade of consistency under their belt, he said St. Tim's has established itself as one of the top cross-country teams in Alberta in the 2A division.
“We’ve been on a good run the last 10 years," he said. "We won provincials last year as our first provincial banner, and we’ve been top-five otherwise. I think we’ve established ourselves for sure as one of the best programs in this province at the 2A level and we [often] have kids medalling at provincials.”
The Thunder's competing runners this year were Caden Jones, Isaac Thibodeau, Brendan Maguire, Ellie Barlow, Nicholas Hooper, and Wil Pittaro.
Jones was the school's top finisher, placing silver in the junior boys' division thanks to a lung-bursting time of 13.33 in the five-kilometre race. Jones raced with a per-kilometre pace of 3:26.
"I jumped to the front off the start with the guys in first and second, who I've raced before in club races," Jones recalled. "They got ahead of me, but I held steadily in front of fourth, and just held onto third.
"It was a pretty flat [course]. It was fast, and a pretty good day overall. The weather was good and it was fun to run on. Overall, no conditions impeded the running."
The 15-year-old Grade 11 student, who also trains and competes with Cummings' Cochrane Endurance Project club team away from school, said it "felt amazing" to medal, as he's been working hard to improve upon his showing at last year's provincial competition.
Jones was also Cochrane's sole athlete to make the podium at this year's cross-country provincials.
"I thought I had a pretty good race. I've been trying to medal at high-school provincials for basically the last year, and I managed to do it, which I'm supper happy about."
According to Cummings, this was Jones' second time racing in the junior boys' age group at provincials, due to his late birthday. The Grade 11 student showed considerable growth compared to last year, when he placed 17th at provincials.
“He’s definitely made a lot of progress and was pretty happy with it," Cummings said. "He won city championships in Calgary the week before, so was on a pretty good tear the last few weeks.”
The Thunder's other competitors mostly ranked in the 20s in their respective fields – Thibodeau finished 21st in the junior boys' division, Maguire finished 22nd in the senior boys', Barlow claimed 26th in the junior girls', Hooper placed 26th in the senior boy's, and Pittaro placed 38th in the senior boys' race.
“We’re really happy with it. The athletes do the best they possibly can on the day of and you can’t really ask for more as a coach," Cummings said. "I wasn’t upset at all that we didn’t win. I think my athletes were a bit more chapped than I was.”
Cochrane High finishes second
In the 3A division, Cochrane High School also produced a silver-medal performance at the Enoch Cree Nation, generating 1,003.42 points.
The Cobras finished just eighteen points behind Camrose Composite, narrowly missing out on the provincial championship.
Some of the Cobras' top runners were Grace Beach, who finished seventh in the intermediate (Grade 11) girls' division; and Csenia Irwin, who placed 12th in the same race; Jett Hasiuk, who finished 29th in the intermediate boys' category, and Clay Grattidge, who raced to 10th spot in the senior boys' age group.
