By Nathan Kanter

16 JP II athletes advance to track provincials

May 26, 2017 | 5:00 PM

Sixteen John Paul II track and field athletes have qualified for provincials after competing at the Battle West Athletics district championships yesterday in North Battleford.

The weather wasn’t pleasant for many of the 601 athletes who competed, which even forced the Grade 7 and 8 events to get cancelled, but the older athletes fought through, which impressed head coach Bruce Yockey.

“The biggest thing that I found with all our kids is they continued to work hard right through the meet regardless of the weather and that was nice to see,” Yockey said on Friday morning. “It would have been easy for some people to just pull up and leave.

“It [was the] wind, rain, and temperature. The biggest thing is just trying to keep them warm in between [events], whether they’re throwing or jumping. Once they get out on the track it’s not too bad.”

There are 12 JP II girls that will be moving on for provincials: Lauren Brandle, Abby Closen, Jessica Cockburn, Allie Degenstein, Sierra Grill, Courtney Johnson, Jalissa Klippenstein, Prisca Mbwebwe, Jordyn Nachtegaele, Kaitlin Tarasoff, Hannah Wilhelm, and Kaitlyn Yockey.

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Yockey said Grill stood out, as she advanced in four different events at the junior girls level: the 200-metre dash, long jump, triple jump, and the 4×100-metre relay. 

Brandle, Klippenstein and Yockey also advanced in three events. Brandle will compete at provincials in the midget girls long jump, triple jump, and 4×100-metre relay. Klippenstein will compete in the senior girls 400-metre, 800-metre and 4×400-metre race. Yockey will compete in the midget girls 200-metre dash, and both the 4×100-metre and 4×400-metre relays.

Other girls to advance in more than one event were Closen (1,500 and 3,000-metre races in senior girls), Degenstein (100-metre and 4×100-metre relay in senior girls), and Tarasoff (800-metre race and javelin in midget girls). 

On the boys side, four athletes advanced: Joel Doke, Narcisse Mbwebwe, Cole Pillar, and Taylor Parker.

Parker stood out because he is actually only 15-years-old but advanced in two senior races.

“We actually moved him up two age categories and he ended up winning the 1,500 and the 3,000 [metre races] in his category, so that was really well done,” Yockey said. 

Doke and Narcisse Mbwebwe advanced in three events each, while Pillar advanced in two junior boys events. Mbwebwe advanced at the senior boys level in the long jump, triple jump, and javelin. Doke will now compete at provincials after his finishes in the junior boys 100-metre hurdles, high jump, and triple jump. Pillar will compete at provincials in the 1,500 and 3,000-metre races.

The 16 total athletes moving on from JP II is an improvement from the 12 from last year.

But Yockey is even more excited for what’s yet to come.

“We have a good crop of young kids coming out of bantam and I’m really looking forward to seeing them hit midget next year,” Yockey said. “[This was] definitely one of our better years [but] I’d love to see our boys improve. Like I said, our girls have been very strong. So we’ll work on that for next year.”

Yockey also added that he was impressed with the organizers, as the meet is the second largest track meet in the province, next to provincials.

“I think the people that were organizing, like Greg Mamer from Wilkie and his crew there and Kelly Schneider, I mean they did a great job,” Yockey said. “It’s unfortunate that the peewees and bantams couldn’t finish the meet, but in order to get it in on Thursday we had to reduce the groups and just have those athletes that can move on to provincials compete.”

Provincials will be take place next week in Saskatoon.

nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca

@NathanKanter11