By CLAUDE SCILLEY
BROCKVILLE—So, Brogan MacDougall is asked, what does you sister think of you breaking all her records?
“I don’t think she likes it very much,” MacDougall said, with an impish grin that suggests any familial indignation may be feigned, but that makes it no less fun for kid sister to twist the needle.
If nothing else, big sister Branna must be getting used to it. For the third meet in a row, Brogan broke a meet record that just so happened to be held by her sister when she won the midget girls 1,500 metres at the East region qualifying track and field meet at Thousand Islands Secondary School.
MacDougall, of Regiopolis Notre Dame, was one of three athletes to break an East region record on the first day of the two-day meet, and she was one of 15 Kingston-area competitors who finished in the top four of their respective events and thereby qualified for the 66th Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations championships next week.
She did it in splendid fashion, not only taking almost six seconds off her sister’s record, but finishing about six seconds ahead of her nearest opponent, which is translates to a lead of about 25 metres at the finish line.
Brogan’s time, 4 minutes 38.65 seconds, was her best of the season, and represents an improvement of 12 seconds from the Kingston Area championships just two weeks ago.
MacDougall said she enjoyed this week’s race more than her race at EOSSAA last week, because there was virtually no wind.
“My coach wanted me to go sub-4:40 if I could, because he knew it was going to be good conditions,” MacDougall said, “but I didn’t wear my watch this time so I didn’t really know what pace I was going at.
“I was just going to try and run my hardest.”
What that meant, however, is that the early part of the race was contested at a faster pace than MacDougall would have liked.
“I was supposed to run 73 (seconds) but I ended up running 71, 72 for the first lap, so it was a bit too fast … but I felt pretty good, so I don’t know if it affected (the rest of the race) too much.”
For the first time this year, MacDougall, whose previous margins of victory have been 42 and 26 seconds, had some serious competition from Mei Mei Weston of Ottawa Glebe. Weston was the bronze medalist at the OFSAA cross-country championship last fall, a race MacDougall won.
Weston stayed with MacDougall for the first two laps of Thurday’s race but MacDougall, who led from start to finish, ultimately pulled away.
“She’s pretty quick,” MacDougall said. “It was good to have someone there because it pushed me a bit through the second lap. It was good to have her there.”
The prospect of having such competition at next week’s OFSAA championship appeals to MacDougall.
“It makes me feel a bit nervous but it will be good to run a real fast time. It should be a pretty close race. These races would be better for me if I had someone pushing me. It will be more fun if I have someone there, running beside me.”
Two other Kingston-area athletes, both from Frontenac, won their events on a sunny Thursday afternoon on a day when there were finals in all divisions of the 200 and 1,500 metres, intermediate hurdles and eight field events.
Ben Cross and Cole Horsman both extended season-long winning streaks with comfortable victories. Cross won senior boys javelin by almost four metres, with a throw of 52.49 metres on his first attempt. Horsman, who established a personal best when he won his heat in 22.98 seconds, won the final of midget boys 200 metres in 22.99 seconds, 1.2 seconds ahead of runner-up Max Taylor of Holy Cross.
Of the 15 athletes so far qualified for OFSAA—in 13 different events—four are from Kingston Collegiate: Ben Workman and Jacquelyn Quesnel, both in 1,500 metres, and Marissa Battle and Sarah Bell, in 200 metres.
Competition concludes today.
