Kalmakoff wins gold in hurdles; Rusk earns silver in pole vault
Shelaine Pritchard made an excellent first impression in her first trip to the provincial high school track and field championships.
The St. Mary student received the overall aggregate title in the midget girls division after she won two gold medals and picked up a silver and bronze medal during the two-day meet in Moose Jaw.
“To be honest, I was just hoping to do better than I did during the district meet here a week earlier,” Pritchard said. “My goal was to try and have good results and maybe have some personal bests.
“It was a little busy, but my coaches did a great job in helping me make sure that I wasn’t stressed out and staying focused on what was next.”
Pritchard earned a total of 66 points over the course of Friday and Saturday at Gutheridge Field, as she beat out Eryn Kielo of Delisle and Alexis Lewans of Saskatoon Holy Cross for the title.
She captured gold medals in the 100-metre dash and the long jump, won a silver medal in the 80m hurdles and picked up a bronze medal in the high jump.
“I was able to set a personal best time (12.48) in my heat race for the 100m dash, so I was really happy about that,” Pritchard said.
“I actually thought I ran worse in the final (where she had a time of 12.71) but it turned out to be fast enough to win the gold medal, so it ended up working out in the end.”
Pritchard’s leap of 5.10 metres earned her the gold in the long jump and she reached a height of 1.58 metres to pick up the bronze.
Kiersten Kalmakoff joined her Marauders teammate on the podium as she picked up the gold medal in the 80m hurdles.
She ran a time of 12.39 seconds in the final, while Pritchard earned the silver with a time of 12.49.
“I was little stressed out going into it as I didn’t think I’d be able to beat Shelaine,” Kalmakoff said. “I guess everything just clicked for me.”
Kalmakoff also competed in the 100m and 200m dashes and the pole vault event, where she finished in fifth place.
“I would have liked to have done better in those events, but I was able to have some personal bests so I was happy about that,” Kalmakoff said.
Thomas Rusk of St. Mary makes his way over the bar during the junior boys pole vault event at Gutheridge Field in Moose Jaw during the SHSAA provincial track and field meet.
Thomas Rusk also brought home a medal from Moose Jaw as he reached a height of 2.85 metres to capture the silver in the junior boys pole vault.
“I was going to be happy with wherever I finished,” Rusk said. “Everything just felt right when I got to the track and it just translated to the competition.
“The entire weekend was a lot of fun. Everything from the track, the people and the environment made it a great competition.”
It was also a great meet for St. Mary as the Marauders team ended up fourth overall in the 4A category.
“It means a lot for us to be up there with the big schools from Saskatoon and with Swift Current, who always have a strong team at the provincials,” coach Bryan Swystun said.
“The kids put in a ton of work throughout the course of the year for the meet. It’s not just the three weeks that the meets are held or what happens once the snow melts around here. It’s an accumulation of all of the training they do with their coaches and their club teams.”
