By Travis Cummings
Special to the Eagle
The St. Timothy’s Thunder High School XC team had high hopes going into the ASAA Provincial Cross Country (XC) Championships in Dunmore, AB on Saturday Oct 19.
Coming off the high of the school’s first ever City Championship, the team carried that momentum into a very competitive provincial competition with hopes of cashing in some more hardware. The team did not disappoint, coming away with another silver medal performance in the 2A school division, just shy yet again, of the Thunder’s first ever provincial championship.
The Alberta Badlands XC course featured some monster hills, challenging coulee terrain, warm weather, and a fast 1,200 metre flat finish. The team’s athletes, for the most part, had their best individual performances of the season. They took on the challenge literally in stride and bent the course to their will.
The Thunder’s Intermediate Girls team packed five athletes in the top 30. Darci Petersen yet again led the Thunder charge with an impressive 5th place finish in a stacked field. Grade 10 rookie Holly Moores had the best race of her young career and finished closely behind Darci to take 8th place. Emily Carvalho and Makenna Myatt (also grade 10) also had career best races and rounded out the top 20 in 19th and 20th respectively. Miranda Hobbs continued her impressive improvement from last year and finished in 26th. Miranda placed 72nd last year at ASAA Provincials in Vermilion. Her progress has been inspiring to say the least. Charlotte Trainor placed 74th, a strong performance given being sick the week leading up to provincials. This was her first competition at this level.
Our lone Senior Boy Koover Schmidt bounced back from a tough Calgary Zone Championship and placed 40th overall in the SB race. He was the 9th Calgary scorer at provincials yesterday and just squeaked into the race with an 18th place finish at Zone’s last week. His provincials race a was huge improvement from his Zone efforts.
Outstanding athleticism, resiliency, grit, and team spirit was exhibited by the Thunder XC team at Echo Dale Park. The coaching staff of Travis Cummings, Pamela Moores, Amy Swedlo, Maria Pham, Elke Nowicki, and Jessica Kaiser are extremely proud of the team. They applaud their efforts of continuing to add to the legacy, culture, and history of Endurance Athletics at St. Timothy’s.
