Runners gain valuable experience

Times Reporter  

 

The Strathmore High School (SHS) Spartans cross country runners placed first at Zones in Canmore on Oct. 9 – and though no hardware was awarded at provincials on Oct. 19 in Drayton Valley, every Spartan improved their personal best times. The team finished with 480.17 points, good for 11th in the province.

“It’s surprising and impressive considering the difficulty of the course we ran,” said Spartans coach Paul Sonsteby. “It was a killer course, there was an immense hill to end each lap; I’ve never seen so many elite runners walk. None of mine, but these are provincial athletes.”

Sonsteby mentioned it was an interesting learning experience as a coach, to plan around that monstrous hill.

“Canmore is a tricky mountain course. This was different,” he said. “This particular hill was a gradual, really steep hill of about 300 to 400 meters. Every race except junior girls had to do it twice. If you’re a runner who’s trying to make a plan, right at the middle of your race, it’s sapping a huge amount of energy. Then having to get your breath back, and do the whole thing again.”

SHS took ten runners to provincials: team captains Carter Jones and Avery Johnson, Tamara Adamschuk, Brenden Roberts, Kyle Foster, Luke Macdonald, Taylor Keegan, Gabi LeMoine, Maria Fanning and Karly Larson. The latter two, Fanning and Larson, finished in 43rd (time of 13:10) and 63rd (time of 19:05), for their respective groupings of junior girls and intermediate girls.

“Karly Larson is an athlete’s athlete. She plays every sport and she’s good at every sport. She kind of always has a smirk or a grin and looks like she’s having fun,” Sonsteby said. “Coming up the hill that second time was the first time I’ve ever seen Karly Larson do her version of suffering. She had a great result; she shaved three minutes off her time – one of the best runs of the day. But she looked like, ‘man, this is hard’.”

Another Spartan who conquered the hill was Gabi LeMoine.

“The distance she’s traveled, ability-wise, from the beginning of Grade 10 to the Grade 11 season; that little runner wouldn’t let the hill tackle her,” Sonsteby said. “She can just build on that for next year.”

Roughly 800 students competed in Drayton Valley.

“We had one of the strongest groups of runners I’ve seen,” Sonsteby said. “It’s thanks to our feeder system. The Cross Country team at the junior high and the run clubs at the elementary schools will ensure us success for years to come. The sport that is other sports’ punishment is starting to come into the mainstream.”