This past week at the Fraser Valley Championships, Valley Royal athletes and sisters, Cassidy and Marley Hutchison showed the competition what they are made of. Both competed in the junior category, earning impressive personal bests in several of their events. Cassidy, the younger of the two, competed in the 800m and the 400m. 
She earned a PB of 1:02.26 in the 400m, easily qualifying for the BC High School Provincials. Marley earned personal bests in both her individual events and placed high enough that she will be joining her sister and the rest of the Valley Royals team at Provincials. Perhaps even more satisfying for Cassidy and Marley is that both of their relay teams qualified for the upcoming meet and they will be working together to go for a spot on the podium.
Month: May 2016
Quality Performances by Royals at FV HS Championships
Led by Vikramjit Gondara’s record breaking throw in the senior boy’s hammer throw, a good number of Valley Royal members qualified for the Provincial High School Championships that take place in Nanaimo during the first week in June…….
Led by Vikramjit Gondara’s record breaking throw in the senior boy’s hammer throw, a good number of Valley Royal members qualified for the Provincial High School Championships that take place in Nanaimo during the first week in June.
Gondara set the pace for club athletes by surpassing previous record marks in the hammer throw at both the Fraser Valley and BC High School Championship level. Gondara tossed the 6-k hammer 59.86m a distance that surpassed the existing BC high school record by more then five meters. For good measure, Gondara also won the discus event with a toss of 42.46m.
Teammate Jayden Driver was a multiple medalist in the throwing events. Driver gave the club a one, two punch in both the hammer and discus with second place finishes in both events. Driver’s toss of 53.34m in the hammer also surpassed the previous record at the Fraser Valley and BC levels. Driver added to his medal collection with a third place finish in the shot put (11.51m).
Tasha Willing, as usual, was a multi event medalist in the senior women’s throwing events. Willing, who represented Chilliwack Secondary at this meet, was first in the shot put (11.98m), second in discus (11.98m) and third in hammer (47.76m).
Rowan Hamilton made up for a disappointing finish in the junior boys’ hammer event where he fouled three times by returning to win the gold medal in the discus throw with a toss of 45.65m.
Three middle distance runners won multiple medals and established personal bests during the three-day meet. Daniel James won gold medals in the junior boys 800m (2:05.48) and 1500m (4:19.18) and placed third in the 400 meters (53.05), an event in which the first three runners were separated by less then 4/10ths of a second. In the 800m James negative split by running his first lap in 64 seconds and the final lap in 61 seconds.
Tanner Geary, who was forced to miss last year’s Fraser Valley meet due to injury, made up for that occurrence by turning in personal bests in both the 1500 and 800 meter events. Geary had an easy time winning the 1500 meters by running a blistering final 300 meters to finish with a time of 4:03.66. In the 800m run, Geary was matched against Langley’s Dean Ellenwood who last year represented Canada internationally. Geary led for most of the distance but was unable to hold Ellenwood off in the final few meters. The event was won by Ellenwood (1:54.69) with Geary a step behind in a personal best 1:55.06.
Rachel Mortimer, a 15-year old grade nine runner, was finally of age to take part in a Fraser Valley Championship. Mortimer made the best of her opportunity by taking part and winning three silver medals in the junior girl’s division. She established personal best performances of 10:19 in the 3,000m and 4:49.42 in the 1500m. Mortimer finished out her busy three days of competition with a second place clocking of 2:20.28 in the 800m.
Other medal performances by club athletes included Abresia Foote with a silver medal in the 1500m RW (9:09), Shaunika Suriya who placed second in the grade 8 girls’ high jump (1.45m), Devon Kular, second in the senior boys’ pole vault (3.00m), Tiger Wu 3rd in Senior Hammer and Amrin Bhangu with a 3rd in Senior Pole Vault. Carson Setter claimed 1st place in the 4×100 m Sr. relay.
Hannah Konrad was under-par health wise during the meet but still managed to place fourth in the senior girls’ 400m (62.23) and gain automatic entry to the provincial championship. Konrad will apply through the open zone to take part in the 800m in Nanaimo.
Two local schools won team titles: Abby Christian 1st in the junior division and WJ Mouat first in the senior division.
Other qualifiers from the club for the BC High School Championships include the following:
Angela Gourley: 6th 100m hurdles Sr.: 7th 200m.
Cassidy Hutchinson: 4th 800m Jr.
Erica Johnson: 7th 1500m SC (pb 5:45.92).
Gurleen Gill: 7th 1500m
Kat Heppell, Kelly Harder, Kelsey Friesen: 6th 4 X 100m Relay Sr
Kelly Harder, Kelsey Friesen: 7th 4 X 400m Relay Sr
Devon Kular: 5th 4 X 100m Relay Sr
Devon Kular: 2nd 4 X 400m Relay Sr
Devon Kular: 2nd Pole Vault Sr
Marley Hutchison: 6th 80mH, 4th 300mH, Jr
Kelly Harder: 8th 400mH, Sr
Carson Setter: 5th 100m Sr
Parmvir Waring: 7th 2000m Steeple Chase, 7th 3000m Sr
Kate Sokolowski: 8th 800m Sr
Amrin Bhangu: 4th 1500m Race Walk Sr
Hannah Lambert: 6th Javelin, Jr
Abresia Foote: 7th Discus, 7th Hammer, Sr
Parker Schlachter: 7th Discus, 4th Shot Put, 5th Hammer, Sr
Tiger Wu: 8th Discus Sr
Udesh Narang: 6th Hammer, Jr
Victories & PBs at Upper Fraser Valleys
Victories and personal bests for Royals athletes at the Upper Fraser Valleys……
Several club athletes had multiple victories while a number of others established personal best performances at the Upper Fraser Valley Championships that took place last week at the Swan Track in Abbotsford.
Thrower Tasha Willing recorded triple wins during the two-day meet as she had no trouble winning the senior girls shot put (11.52m), discus (25.56m) and hammer (46.66m). Other wins by throwers were produced by Rowan Hamilton, first in junior boys hammer (54.11m) and discus (39.54m) while Vikramjit Gondara won the senior boys hammer with an impressive 59.95m performance as well as the discus with a throw of 40.91m. Jayden Driver was his reliable self and turned in silver medal performances in the senior boys shot put (11.23m), discus (38.26m) and hammer (51.40m).
Middle distance runners Tanner Geary, Daniel James and Rachel Mortimer led the way for the Royals in the running events. Geary established a personal best in the senior boys 800m battling to the finish with last year’s Canadian Youth team member Dean Ellenwood. Geary started his finishing drive with 300m to go but was caught a few meters from the line by Ellenwood. The Langley runner won the event in a time of 1:55.6 but Geary recorded a personal best with his second place clocking of 1:55.9.
Daniel James, a 16-year old grade 10 student, ran in the junior boys age division. James placed first in the 400m (53.10) and 1500m (4:18.4) but had to settle for second place in the 800m (1:59.8). In the 800m James jumped into the lead with 200m to go but that move may have cost him the win as he was caught at the tape by Langley athlete Jordan Schmidt (1:59.2).
Rachel Mortimer, as a grade 9 runner, was competing in her first Fraser Valley Championship meet. Competing in the junior girls division, Mortimer was first in the 1500m (4:52.6) and 3000m (10:30) and came second in the 800m (2:25.9).
Cassidy Hutchison placed 3rd in both the 400m and 800m races. Marley Hutchison set a PB of 13.12 in the 80 m hurdles and together Marley and Cassidy qualified for the Fraser Valley meet for all 5 events they competed in!
Cassie Brandsma was a double gold medalist with victories in the junior girls high jump recording an impressive 1.63m and pole vault (1.90m). Bryce MacKenzie was first in the junior boys high jump with a very good height for his age group of 1.85m.
Other medal winners by club athletes included Angela Gourley, 2nd in both 100m hurdles (16.34) and 400m hurdles (71.65), Hannah Konrad with silver medals in 400m (61.24) and 800m (2:21.7), Abresia Foote, 2nd in the jr. girls 1500m RW (8:51), Devon Kular with second place in Sr. boys PV (3.00m) and Erica Johnson, 3rd in senior girls’ 1500m steeplechase (5:59).
Joan Wager Poms, on loan to the Royals from Spain, had an easy victory in the boys’ 2-k SC (6:40) with teammate Parmvir Waring 2nd (6:50).
Now it’s on to the Fraser Valley Championships that take Monday, Tuesday and Thursday of next week at the Coquitlam track.
Smith Achieves Olympic Standard, #1 Ranking
Smith Achieves Olympic Standard and #1 Ranking……
Jessica Smith traveled to Palo Alto, California last Sunday to take part in the Stanford Invitational. It was a good day for running that featured very warm temperatures and good fields of runners. Smith placed second in the 800m. Her time of 2:01.84 was under the Canadian Olympic standard and puts her in excellent position to be selected for this summer’s Brazil Olympic Games as well as gaining Smith the top ranking in Canada for her event so far this year.
Now that she has achieved the all-important standard, if Smith places amongst the first three in the 800m at the Canadian Championships, she should secure herself a place on our country’s Olympic team.
Lindsey Butterworth and Helen Crofts also took part in the 800m at the Stanford meet with both VR athletes producing notable performances. Butterworth ran her all time best clocking of 2:04.00 to place fifth and Crofts put forth her best effort of the season in coming eighth (2:05.06). The weekend’s results at Stanford places Smith first in the current Canadian rankings for the 800m with Butterworth in fifth spot and Crofts in eighth.
Django Lovett holds second place in the Canadian rankings for the men’s high jump. Last Saturday Canadian record holder Derek Drouin jumped 2.24 meters in Des Moines, Iowa but Lovett’s jump of 2.23m achieved earlier in the season places him second in the Canadian rankings.
In the junior men’s Canadian rankings, Joel Della Siega, of Ocean Athletics, who is a Valley Royal training member, is tied for first in the rankings (2.05m) with Michael Lambert in third position with a height of 1.95m.
This coming Wednesday and Thursday a large number of club athletes will represent their various schools at the Upper Fraser Valley Championships that take place at the Swan Track in Abbotsford. This meet is the first step in qualifying for the Provincial High School Track and Field Championships in Nanaimo during the first week in June.
Chocolate Fundraiser for Month of May!
JD Chocolate Fundraiser details…
We are super excited to announce that we have an AMAZING opportunity for our JD Athletes (and now ALL of our Athletes) to help support the Valley Royals Track and Field Club!!
We have been in contact with World’s Finest Chocolates. We will be receiving chocolate suitcases for the JD team to help raise funds for the club. Each chocolate suitcase has a retail value of $90. The club will profit $48 on each suitcase. That’s a staggering 53% profit towards the club!!
EXCITING!!!! This means extra funds that can go towards new equipment, track meets and the possibility of funding our very own Track Meet. Something we are working very hard to make a reality!
Our goal is to have Every JD member (& interested Valley Royal Athletes) sell at least one or two chocolate suitcases in their neighborhood. Have the kids go door to door selling in the Royals Singlet or Hoodie-Anything with the Royals Logo!! Take them to work! Get out in the nice weather and sell at soccer games! Every event you attend make sure you bring your chocolate suitcase and SELL SELL SELL!!!! This is a great way to get your little athlete involved in
the community and supporting their activity.
At the end of the month of May/ beginning of June we will have locations set up for the kids to sell (Locations and Dates to be announced). We would love it if every JD Athlete could do a 3-4 hour shift of selling chocolates. We will also need a few parents to help supervise.
There will be PRIZES to whoever sells the MOST chocolates!!
DO WE HAVE YOUR ATTENTION NOW??
Read the rest of the details here… Chocolate Fundraiser
Driver Hurls His Way to SFU…
Driver Hurls His Way to SFU ……
Please follow the link to read the article at the Abbotsford News.