Three Kingston Area athletes were winners Thursday on the first day of the annual Eastern Ontario Secondary Schools Athletic Association track and field championships at Thousand Islands Secondary School in Brockville.
One of them, Regiopolis Notre Dame midget runner Brogan MacDougall, for the second week in a row, broke a meet record that had been held by her sister, Branna. Brogan’s winning time, 4 minutes, 44.72 seconds, was not only almost four seconds better than the time Branna posted in 2013, it was, by a little more than 15 seconds, the fastest time of any female competitor in any division of the 1,500 metres Thursday.
Another of the victories posted by local athletes came in the 1,500 metres, where senior Ben Workman of Kingston Collegiate got the best of Max Serviss, of Valour High School in Petawawa, edging the defending champion by three one-hundredths of a second, to win in 4 minutes 2.42 seconds.
Sydenham’s Merik Wilcock got the other local win on Thursday’s schedule, besting the field in junior boys 300-metre hurdles. His winning time, 42.45 seconds, was a second and a half faster than the rest of the field.
The closest finish of the night was for third place in senior boys intermediate hurdles, a 60-second race where just four one-hundredths of a second separated Joshua MacMillan of Kemptville St. Michael, and Ryan Gibson and Chad McInnes, both of Sydenham.
The bulk of the meet will be held Friday, beginning at 9 a.m. Athletes who place in the top six of their respective events will advance to the East Region meet next week, the final qualifying competition for the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations championships, June 4-6 at the Varsity Centre in Toronto.