Leading the Way…

Travel to California in the month of April can, in many cases, be a worthwhile excursion for athletes that are seeking performances that are encouraging. Perhaps it’s the escape from rain and cool temperatures of the Pacific Northwest into the warm and balmy southern weather, or maybe it’s because California is just a hotbed of track and field and that fact alone gets everyone in the mood to do well.
 
Whatever the reason, a number of club athletes made the trip south during the month of April and returned home with season bests and, in some cases, leading Canadian marks. Jessica Smith definitely made good use of the California sun by producing a 2014 Canadian best in the 800 meters by running the distance in 2:01.42. Not far behind Jessica was teammate Helen Crofts, now performing with full health, with a fast 2:02.41 clocking that at present ranks her third in Canada. In addition, both Jessica and Helen turned in personal bests for 1500 meters with times of 4:15.96 and 4:19.95 respectively.
 
Competing in Corvallis, Oregon, Alexandria Siemens produced a season best 4:39.24 as a member of the University of Idaho team. “It could have been better but I am now making progress and feel confident about my ability to run faster in coming weeks” stated Siemens.
 
Oliver Jorgensen, competing for SFU, took part in several California meets and produced the very worthwhile 5,000m clocking of 14:34.94 (second ranked Jr. men’s performance in Canada) and a creditable 3:54.84 in the 1500 meters. Oliver’s times in both the 1500 and 5000 meter events qualifies him for the conference meet and places him in strong contention to be invited to the NCAA Division 2 Nationals. Now if Oliver can just keep out-of-the-way of tripping over some obstacle and injuring himself, he should be in store for an excellent season.
 
The Upper Fraser Valley Championships were held last Wednesday and Thursday and countless club athletes qualified for the Fraser Valley Championships that take place next week in Coquitlam. While there were too many performances to enumerate in this release, some notable winning performances were turned in by Sarya Ross in the senior girl’s 1500, Hannah Conrad in the senior girls 400 and 800 meters, Tanner Geary in the junior boys middle distance runs and Kate Sokolowski in the grade eight girls middle distance events.