THREE longstanding individual records fell while Sentinel ran away with the team title at the North Shore high school track and field championships held May 17 at Burnaby's Swangard Stadium.
In the team competition Sentinel finished first overall, claiming the North Shore AAA banner, while AA school St. Thomas Aquinas finished second overall to claim the North Shore AA banner. Collingwood and Seycove tied for third overall.
On the individual stage Sutherland's Rachel Jones set a pair of marks in the juvenile girls age group, clocking new records in the 1,500-m and 800-m races, while Argyle's James Elson leapt to a new record in the junior boys triple jump.
Jones ran the 1,500 m in 4: 47.08, beating the old championship record of 4: 47.46 set by Kathleen Mayrs of long-gone Hillside secondary back in 1978. In the 800 m Jones posted a time of 2: 14.91, smashing the record of 2: 19.55 set by Argyle's Susan Chalmers in 1986.
Elson, meanwhile, had an adventure while setting his record. His winning distance was initially reported as 12.52 m, a number that his keeneyed mother thought sounded a little short. A second look at the results page revealed that Elson's longest attempt was actually 12.76 m, a number that beat the junior championship mark of 12.74 m set by Balmoral's Phil Chutka in 1976. Muddying the waters even further, Argyle grad Morgan Haines, now an assistant coach at the school, thought that number sounded familiar. A quick check of his winner's ribbon from 2009 showed a distance of 12.76, making him the second junior within the space of a few days to have his number bumped up over top of a 36-year-old record. Elson and Haines now share the record.
The North Shore championships also featured aggregate winners for the athletes in each age group who finished with the most points - 10 points are awarded for a win in a maximum of three events.
In the senior boys category Chris More O'Ferrall of Seycove and Youle Chen of West Vancouver shared the award with More O'Ferrall winning the 100-m, 200-m and 400m sprints and Chen claiming the long jump, triple jump and high jump titles.
Junior boys was another tie with Elson winning the 110-m hurdles, high jump and triple jump and Chatelech's Caleb Burnham finishing first in the 100 m, 200 m and shot put. Juvenile boys went to Rockridge's Kenny Schultze with victories in the 100-m hurdles, 200 m and 400 m. In bantam boys Dakota McGovern of Windsor House, the only athlete from his school competing in the meet, claimed the aggregate title with victories in the 800-m, 1,500-m and 3,000-m races.
On the girls side Seycove's Lauren Swan and Chatelech's Sara Perry split the aggregate title with 26 points each, Swan doing her damage on the track in the 100-m hurdles and 100-m and 200-m sprints and Perry scoring on the field in the hammer, discus and javelin throws.
Alana Mussato of STA won the junior title, winning the 200-m, 400-m and 800-m races while Jones topped the juvenile division with her record-setting 1,500-m and 800-m runs as well as a win in the 200-m sprint.
In the bantam girls category Handsworth's Nicola Ros and Sentinel's Kelsey Shellard shared the title with Ros winning the 200 m, long jump and triple jump and Shellard finishing first in 800 m, 1,500 m and high jump.
The British Columbia high school track and field championships are being held this weekend at Swangard.
