CANORA - On Oct. 7, Canora Junior Elementary School held its second annual cross-country meet. The course was marked out around the playground and runners had to complete nine laps for a total of 2.25 km.
Runners younger than Grade 3 were not included in most divisional tournaments this year so coaches Rod Steciuk and Jennifer Prychak decided to once again hold their own local event “after seeing the perseverance and dedication of our runners.”
Participants earned a “golden ticket” to compete in the race by attending every practice and completing all nine laps consistently.
Classes came out at different times to help cheer on their classmates.
A highlight of the event was new personal best times achieved by the majority of runners.
In an individual highlight, Drew Kitchen ran a blistering time of 10:22, coming within two seconds of matching the course record of 10:20 set by Karter Shukin a year ago.
In the U8 boys race, the results and times were: Jacob Prychak, first (11:57); Chance Unick, second (12:35), and Trevor Keyowski, third (13:26).
The U8 girls was quite close: Keira Owchar, first (12:39); Ava Sliva, second (12:57); Mae McTavish, third (13:33), and Aliannah Herriges, fourth (13:50).
U9 boys: Coy Kraynick, first (11:08); Logan Menton, second (11:27); and Connor Pozniak, third (14:30) .
U9 girls: Cora Tomcala, first (12:23); Olivia Owchar, second (13:23), and Layla Keyowski, third (13:26).
U10 boys: Drew Kitchen, first (10:22) and Skylar Brass, second (14:07).
U10 girls: Talia Collingridge, first (12:25) and Hannah Dutchak, second (13:14).
On Oct. 5, a number of the CJES runners from grades 3 and 4 represented their school and Canora at the Saltcoats district cross-country meet.
In U9 boys, out of 39 runners, Coy Kraynick placed ninth and Logan Menton came in 22nd.
Cora Tomcala finished 18th out of 38 runners in U9 girls.
In U10 boys, Drew Kitchen placed sixth out of 39 runners.
Hannah Dutchak finished 17th out of 37 runners in U10 girls.
The cross-country team began the season with close to 100 runners. As the season carried on around 30 runners consistently came to practice.
“Some runners chose to come out for the sole purpose of physical fitness. Other runners chose to set their sights on tournament competition,” reported the coaches.
