Battleford local, Ryan Taylor, during the Javelin toss at Wednesday's Battle West District Track meet in North Battleford. (Martin Martinson/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Martin Martinson

NBCHS athlete shines

Local athlete, Ryan Taylor makes mark at track districts

May 26, 2022 | 6:06 PM

If the hockey rink is his second home for the winter months, the track and field pitch may just be local athlete, Ryan Taylor’s summer vacation spot.

Following a standout hockey season, patrolling the blue line with the Battlefords AAA Stars, Taylor announced his commitment to the North Stars for the fall of 2022 earlier this spring, and is now putting together a memorable performance representing North Battleford Comprehensive High School at this week’s Battle West Track and Field Districts.

Pictured L-R: Ryan Taylor alongside fellow AAA Stars teammates, Dayne Henry and Kobie Anderson, representing their local high schools at track districts. (Martin Martinson/battlefordsNOW Staff)

Competing as a Grade 11 student with a late-2005 birthdate, Taylor put forth a dominant display on Day 1 of the locally-held districts competition Wednesday, in particular with his bread and butter in the junior boys tetrathlon.

Made up of four events, the tetrathlon (or quadrathlon) features the 100-metre, long jump, shotput, and 800-metre. While Taylor said he may have entered the day with some nerves, it didn’t take long to hit his stride — quite literally — in his first event of the day, finishing first in the 100-metre with a time of 11.95 seconds.

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“I was a little bit nervous going into the first event, but got those jitters out and ran a pretty good time,” Taylor said. “After that, just going into the long jump I was feeling pretty good. All the nervousness was kind of gone, so I just let [the momentum] kind of carry on from there.”

In long jump, Taylor finished second by just three millimeters with a jump of 5.50 metres, before also registering a first-place finish in shotput (10.67 metres) and 800-metres (2:27.76) to finish first in both and top spot overall, with an astounding 2184 points, just 81 points off the SHSAA provincial record.

He said while hockey has always been his first passion, track has also been something he’s really come to enjoy as a slight change during the spring/summer months that also holds a cross-training benefit.

“It’s a good mix and a good change from hockey,” Taylor said. “Hockey is my favorite sport, but you need to have a little bit of an off-season and I think this is it for me. If you look at it a certain way, it’s really just hockey fitness training and I think they correlate pretty well too, so they also go hand-in-hand.”

In addition to the tetrathlon, Taylor will also be competing in three additional events over the two-day district meet, to help contribute extra points to the NBCHS team: javelin, triple-jump and the 200-metre, along with the meet-concluding 4×100-metre relay team.

Showing humility, perhaps in part cultivated from his years on the ice in the team-first culture of hockey, Taylor was also quick to mention the success of his teammates wearing the Vikings’ navy blue, competing alongside him at this week’s districts.

“I had a really good day, and I think the team in general at NBCHS had a great day,” he said reflecting. “Everyone knew what they had to do, we’ve been preparing for this for a long time, so we have to give credit to the coaches too. We’ve been working since March for this day and it wasn’t just me who came through. I think everyone did.”

Day 2 of the Battle West Districts will take place Friday at the Centennial Park track. Thursday was an off-day between meet days for World Catholic Education Day.

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Martin.Martinson@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @MartyMartyPxP1