Spartans succeed at provincials

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

The Strathmore High School Spartans Track and Field team finished 15th out 59 Schools at the 3A track and field provincials in Lethbridge on June 5-6.
Graduating participant Kyle Foster captured bronze in the 4x400m relay and only won it by one stride to the finish line. This was his first time on the podium.
“It was really back and forth throughout the whole race, ” said Foster.
“I got this decent lead on the third leg but I got really noodle-legged at the last 100 metres and he (Nick of Holy Trinity Academy) caught up to me and so I only had a five metre lead on him.”
It was really on the fourth leg that Foster felt that one last gasp would propel him to the bronze medal.
He felt the emotions running through him in the latter stages of the event.
“It’s our fourth leg and he ended up getting past me and I’m freaking out at this point and just within the last 100 metres, he passed the guy who passed him and we just barely took it by 3/10 of a second,” said Foster.
Foster added that having consistency on their team was key to coming out of the heap with a medal.
“Nick was a fourth leg and had been fairly consistent in all three years of high school,” said Foster.
“He always goes for 4x400s, so I think it was that previous experience he had that really pushed him through. We were all of course at the finish line freaking out, it might have been us cheering him on, and he just barely took it.”
He felt pretty honoured to come through in his last chance with the Spartans considering it was his last crack at a high school athletics medal.
“I did a little bit more training this year, just in hopes to get a medal this year and it paid off,” said Foster.
Foster also placed 10th in the Senior Men’s 200 metre.
Karly Larson placed fifth in the Senior Women’s High Jump, and sixth in the Senior Women’s 400 metre.
She felt that her placing was about where she wanted to be by the end of provincials.
“I jumped as high as I could have, the next height I wasn’t able to clear as good and I hadn’t had any missed prior to that so I finished as high as I could,” said Larson.
However, it was somewhat intimidating competing with other girls that do these track events all year round.
“They come to high school provincials and it’s just kind of another meet for them but for me and Kyle it’s just our one meet of the year,” said Larson.
“It’s always intimidating seeing the girls that are club and they know what they’re doing.”
She felt that energy she gained on the track was just from listening to the competitors in the tent and learning from what they were saying.
Larson admits her favourite part about her last provincials was watching other participants set records, but her most memorable moment was being in the last individual event of provincials.
Coach Carrie Westgard was impressed with the commitment to staying in shape by both Larson and Foster.
“Well I know both Kyle and Karly trained really hard this year, they put in a lot of extra time personally on their own, which was nice to see,” said Westgard.
“Kyle put in four, sometimes five days a week, and we only asked them to come twice a week. He knew there was a possibility he could medal.”
She admits that it meant more for just normal school athlete to go into the competition because the athletes worked so hard for what they’ve accomplished.
“They’re not doing this 24/7, seven days a week, they’re not a track club kid. When they finish with a medal, I think it means more because they’re work is paying off,” said Westgard.
Other Spartans that had solid showings at provincials were Erin Warrack placing ninth in the Senior Women’s Shot Put, Trygve Many Guns also getting bronze in Junior Men’s Shot Put, Mason Kennett getting seventh in intermediate in Men’s Javelin, the team of Misi Varga, Scott Desserre and J.J. Sleigh-Pelly got fourth in the Junior Men’s 4×100 metre.