The casual but competitive demeanour of Oak Bay High’s Valdi Alarie-Hill was on display at the Lower Island Track and Field championships at UVic’s Centennial Stadium on May 9.
The senior Alarie-Hill took first in the boys 110-metre hurdles, first in the discus and first in the javelin. Alarie-Hill threw the discus 30.75, enough to edge Lambrick Park’s Connor Turnbull (29.82m), and chucked the javelin 50.47 metres for gold in that event, his best result by nearly four metres in 2018 school competitions.
Watch: Lower Island track and field season warming up
Mount Douglas thrower Gwyneth Frederiksen won the senior girls discus with a 30.40m throw and then won the shot put (9.9m) ahead of Oak Bay’s Ali Gallant (8.91m). However, Gallant (40.29m) won the hammer, out-throwing second-place Frederiksen (38.23m).
Other multiple winners included Alisa Lyesina of Oak Bay in the senior girls 800m and 1,500m, and Mount Doug’s Liam Dwyer in the senior boys 3,000m and steeplechase (2,000m).
In what is a strong field of Grade 10 junior girls athletes, Lambrick Park’s Mimosa Schulz confirmed her supremacy on the hurdles winning the 90m in 13.18 seconds with Oak Bay’s Jade Forrest second (14.75) and Annabelle Fieltsch third (14.62).
Oak Bay’s Taleesha Hall outpaced all comers in the junior girls 100m for first in 12.92 seconds ahead of St. Andrew’s Alyssa Blair (13.49) and Schulz (13.61).
In one of the closest races of the day, Belmont’s Eli Neims-Horton ran the senior boys 100m in 11.33 seconds to edge Pacific Christian’s Joel Runkel (11.63) and Mount Doug’s Aidan Wold (11.66). Runkel did win the 200m in 22.69, narrowly edging Ben Sammons of Parkland. Sammons won the boys 400m.
Among the junior boys, Chase Haagensen, a Grade 10 Reynolds secondary student, continued to impress with an 11.41-second time to win the 100m dash. Reynolds’ Kadin Martin was second, narrowly edging out Mount Doug’s Joe Lucas.
Haagensen then repeated the effort winning the 200m dash in 23.51 seconds, ahead of second-place Connor Loughnane (home schooled) in 23.29 and Ran Kettlewell (Oak Bay) in 24.32.