When the morning fog had lifted and the sun shone on the North Island Track and Field Championships at Timberlane Park on Thursday, May 4, Brooks Secondary School’s team had already put in some amazing performances, according to coach Graham Cocksedge.
By all accounts, coaches and competitors from the North Island schools considered the meet a huge success.
“It was awesome, for the first time doing it,” said Cocksedge. “We’re super pumped and we’ll do it again and each time it’s just going to get better.”
In only the school’s second year of fielding almost a full team in the championships, and with a strong group of junior athletes coming up, Cocksedge said the future is bright for Brooks.
“Most of them are juniors, between the junior girls and junior boys, so half are juniors, and then we have a few seniors and there are solid grade eight kids coming up,” he said. “That’s what makes the program.”
There were a number of notable performances from Brooks competitors. A team of 32 competed against close to 400 athletes. Powell River had 34 top-three finishes, with many placing multiple times competing in different events.
With so many surprises, it’s hard to single out anyone on the team, said Cocksedge.
“There were so many who were really astounding,” he said. “There were 15 kids who placed first.”
A few personal bests were put in by Brooks athletes, including a number noteworthy performances in both track and field events.
Junior boys first place in the 4x400 relay was “smoking fast,” said Cocksedge. Other athletes who had an exceptional meet were Annika Schmunk, who placed first in grade nine girls 400 metres and 800 metres; Mackenzie Guild in the junior boys 800 metres; favourite Chris Fisher crushed the field in the junior boys 3000 metres; Camryn Cline won the junior girls 800 metres by one-tenth of a second; Samuel Vallieres tied for first in senior boys high jump; and Drew Sundberg tied for first in junior boys long jump and placed second by a hair in junior boys high jump. Brooks also had some strong relay finishes.
Athletes who competed at the North Island meet go on to the Island Championships.
“Then, at the Islands, they have to be top five, which is really competitive because it is all of Vancouver Island,” said Cocksedge.
Provincial championships follow the Islands and Cocksedge expects Brooks athletes to be there.
“They placed well in their age group last year and definitely well at Islands, so we’ll take quite a few kids on to BCs,” he said. “The team we do have is really committed and really strong. A huge chunk of those kids will move on.”
