Sydenham won both the boys and girls team championships and, of course, the overall team title Thursday as the Kingston Area Secondary Schools Athletic Association track and field championships concluded at Caraco Field.
For the third year in a row Holy Cross was second in all three categories.
Sydenham athletes amassed 348 points in girls competition, 29 more than Holy Cross. In boys events, Sydenham prevailed 368-308.
Although the Golden Eagles presented a deep team—with 81 entries, it was more than 30 per cent larger than the next-biggest team, Regi’s 60-person contingent—Sydenham also displayed unmatched quality, as its athletes won 22 events, more than anyone else.
Kingston Collegiate competitors won 19 events, while Frontenac won 16 and Holy Cross 14.
As usual, Sydenham dominated the hurdles, winning eight of the 12 divisions, setting one record and tying another. To give an idea of the school’s perennial domination of the hurdles, both of those records had been held by Sydenham athletes.
In all, 475 competitors from 13 schools took part.
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Anthony Donnet of Queen Elizabeth had quite an unusual day.
The 2014 OFSAA bronze medalist in midget boys high jump, Donnet tried his hand at putting the shot at Thursday’s junior boys competition—and he won.
High jump and shot is an unlikely pairing, the like of which has not been performed with significant success since Regi’s Erin Sepic excelled in high jump and discus 20 years ago.
The oddity of Donnet’s day did not stop there. Having forgotten his shoes, the tall, lanky junior began throwing the shot in sandals. Eventually, however, he discarded them and finished the event throwing in his sock feet.
When it came time to do the high jump, Donnet found himself as the only junior-age competitor. The young man who cleared 1.80 metres on one bad leg at OFSAA a year ago took one attempt at 1.40 metres—in his sandals—cleared it and called it a day.
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Loyalist’s Jenna Black won senior girls long jump Thursday with a best attempt of 4.75 metres. It was a 32-centimetre victory, but the real competition iwasn’t for the win, but for the other three positions that would qualify competitors for next week’s EOSSAA meet in Brockville.
Adriana den Ouden of Holy Cross was third at 4.19, followed by jumpers at 4.16 metres, 4.14, 4.09 and 4.06. With places three through seven separated by just 13 centimetres, it was undoubtedly the closest competition of the day.
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The finish in the midget boys 3,000 metres wasn’t shabby, either. Race winner Noah Frymire of KC, runner-up Daniel Van Heyst of Holy Cross and third-place finisher Brennan Laidman of Frontenac finished the 10-and-a-half-minute race less than three seconds apart.
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Some top athletes were conspicuous by their absence at the meet Thursday.
La Salle’s Heather Jaros, two-time OFSAA gold medalist and the OFSAA record holder in junior girls 1,500 metres, has retired from competitive running, her coach with the Physi-Kult club, Steve Boyd, said Thursday.
Physi-Kult teammate Branna MacDougall, of Regiopolis Notre Dame, is coming off a hectic winter cross-country season that saw her compete overseas in Colombia and China. She’s gearing her training to the world youth championships this summer, Boyd said. Regardless, he added, MacDougall is nursing a minor injury and likely wouldn’t have been able to compete on Thursday.
KC’s Cameron Linscott, two-time OFSAA bronze medalist in the 3,000 metres and the reigning OFSAA senior boys cross-country champion, also did not compete at this year’s KASSAA meet.
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The winning performances of Emily Fawcett of Holy Cross and Chelsea Hiemstra of La Salle in junior and midget girls shot put, respectively, will stand as new records, since the weight of the shot in those divisions this year has been reduced, from four to three kilograms.
