The Summerland Secondary Track and Field team attended the Valley Championships last week and came home with some excellent results.
The meet was held on Wednesday, May 15 at the Apple Bowl track in Kelowna.
The team ended up winning the team competition for the girls’ side and placed sixth overall for the boys’ side.
Despite having a much younger squad — most of Summerland’s athletes are in Grade 9 and 10 — the team competed in the senior level of competition against mostly Grade 11 and 12 participants, and they fared well.
Competing against much larger schools also, the team pulled out a Valley Championship for the girls — a feat never before accomplished by the school.
Coaches Tom Brickenden and Chris Foley were pleased with the efforts of the entire team, all of whom earned personal bests in all of their events.
Grade 9 student Haven Dufty won the Senior Girls long jump and triple jump competitions, as well placing second in the Senior Girls 100 metre hurdles.
Haven set a meet record in the triple jump that had been standing for a number of years.
Her sister, Hunter Dufty, Grade 8, who represented Summerland Middle School, placed second in the Senior Girls discus, and second in the Senior Girls shot put. Overall, it was a great day for the Dufty family.
In the Senior Boys high jump, Grade 9 student Landon Brickenden placed first overall with a personal best jump of 1.80 metres. He also placed third in the Senior Boys long jump competition.
Other notable performances were by Grade 11 student Erin Detchkoff who placed fourth in the Senior Girls 100 metre and fourth in the Senior Girls high jump. Megan Avery, in Grade 9, placed second in the Senior Girls 200 metre race and was a member of the girls 4x100 metre relay team that placed third overall. The other members of the relay team were Haven Dufty, Detchkoff and Grade 9 student Jaedyn Foley.
Foley also placed fourth in the 100 metre hurdle race.
Shannon Clarke, in Grade 11, placed third in the Senior Girls hammer throw, as well as fourth in both the discus and shot put events.
Caylum Foley, in Grade 11, finished fourth in the tough Senior Boys 400 metre race.
Eric Sherban, in Grade 10, placed fifth in the Senior Boys triple jump. Sam Kane, in Grade 10, and Shane Fofonoff, in Grade 9, placed sixth and seventh in this event as well.
Scott Richards, in Grade 9, finished fifth in the Senior Boys 2,000 metre steeplechase race and Jessa Barber placed seventh in the endurance-testing 3,000 metre event.
Lindsey Isaak, in Grade 12, also ran a strong race in the 800 metre event and bested her previous time.
Sylvia Mott, in Grade 9, also placed third in the 1,500m race walk event.
Shannon Thompson, in Grade 9, placed sixth in the Senior Girls javelin and seventh in the discus.
All the athletes who placed first to third in the Valley meet qualified for the Provincial Championships which will take place this weekend. That meet will be held at McLeod Athletic Park in Langley on May 31 to June 1.
Haven Dufty, Brickenden, Detchkoff, Foley, Clarke and Avery will all be attending this meet, again competing against mostly older athletes.