JPII Track athletes, Sam Petersen, Luke Kowerchuk and Leo Senger, pictured here with the Battle West banner for total points. (submitted photo/Bruce Yockey)

By Martin Martinson

Run, jump, throw

Districts track meet sets stage for provincial tournament

May 31, 2019 | 2:04 PM

“Athletics at its core, as raw as it can possibly be. It [determines] who can run the fastest, jump the farthest, and throw the farthest.”

That is how Bruce Yockey, track coach at John Paul II Colligate, describes track and field.

Nearly 500 athletes from around the region converged at the North Battleford City Track Wednesday and Thursday for the annual Battle West District Track and Field meet.

Battle West covers schools from as far north as Leoville down to Luseland, Sask.

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Featuring students from Grades 7 to 12, for the high school-aged students, the top two in each track event will now come together to form the district’s team. That team will advance to provincials, held June 7 and 8 in Moose Jaw.

Although the peewee and bantam-aged elementary students do not advance to provincials, Yockey suggests the experience the students gain at an event like this can only bode well moving forward as they near the high school ranks.

“They may compete at their elementary school or in junior high, but then they get to come and see things on a bit of a larger stage and it’s good for them to gain that experience,” he said.

Despite mixed weather results that included pretty hot weather Wednesday and a bit of a smoke overhead on Thursday, Yockey said the event went off without a hitch and was by all accounts a successful showing for the district.

“It was really impressive,” he said. “All the schools in our district had some really good athletes. I thought this year, if you look at the overall point totals in those top four, the competition was as close as it has ever been. Every school sent some really outstanding athletes and they all performed really well. “

John Paul II Colligate, and North Battleford Comprehensive High School finished first and third in overall score amongst the schools competing on the day.

Wilke’s Mclurg school, meanwhile, took home the Kirkpatrick Award on the day, given for best overall score per-student capita, averaging just over 20 points-per-student.

Yockey said with several of the athletes flourishing in multiple events over the two-day meet, Battle West should be in good hands heading facing off against the best Saskatchewan has to offer.

“A number of athletes from each school won their age category, and lots of them finished with four first-place finishes in the four events that they were in,” he said. “There are some really outstanding athletes that will represent Battle West really well at provincials.”

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Martin.Martinson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: MartyMartyPxP1