Five students from Holy Rosary reached the podium at the School Sport Alberta provincial track and field championships in June at Foothills Athletic Park in Calgary.
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Those medallists were among 14 athletes from the Lloydminster Catholic school to qualify for the senior high school provincials. Overall, the Raiders placed third among 3A schools, behind champion St. Paul and runner-up Beaverlodge Regional.
From the Holy Rosary contingent, Alex Giesbrecht and Kalli Kuntz each earned silver medals, while Moyo Akinloye, Mfonma Idiong and Logan Weninger each took home bronze medals. All of them were in Grade 11 this year, except for Giesbrecht, who was a Grade 10 student.
In the junior boys’ 800-metre race, Giesbrecht (2:01.24) was second only to Medicine Hat’s Zaide Kolody (1:59.37). Third place went to Ryan Sharpe (2:01.67) of St. Francis in Calgary.
Giesbrecht also showed well in longer races, placing fourth in the 1,500 metres (4:15.36) and seventh in the 3,000 (9:38.23).
The other silver-medallist from Holy Rosary was Kuntz. Her best throw in the intermediate girls’ javelin was 39.39 metres. The gold-medallist was Ryann Markham (40.12) of Beaumont Composite. Calgary Christian’s Haley Deklerk (33.46) finished third.
In the intermediate girls’ shot put, the Raiders’ Idiong nabbed bronze with a toss of 11.58 metres. Ella Cooper (11.93) of Calgary’s Edge School won the event. The runner-up was Ylaina Ubell (11.76) of Edmonton’s Jasper Place.
In the intermediate boys’ 200 metres, Holy Rosary’s Akinloye showed some of his football speed in placing third in 23.10 seconds. The top two finishers were Benny Allangba (22.02) of J.H. Picard and Liam Nelson (22.81) of Dr. Anne Anderson.
Rounding out the Raiders’ medallists was Weninger, who reached 1.80 metres to land bronze in the intermediate boys’ high jump. The winner was Eli Steed (2.00) of Magrath and the runner-up was Japhet Mofeng (1.85) of Edmonton’s McNally.
The abundant crop of intermediate athletes from Holy Rosary included Lloydminster Lancers U18 AAA hockey defenceman Graydon Kvill, who finished in seventh spot to place in the top half of his 800-metre race. His time was 2:13.98.
Kvill was also a member of the Northeast zone 4×100 relay team that came in seventh in the intermediate boys’ division. His relay teammates were fellow Raiders Akinloye and Luc Lehmond and St. Paul’s Liam Nolan.
Along with Kvill, among other Lloydminster elite hockey players participating in the Alberta track provincials were Lloyd Athletics 18U captain Rhys Horon (senior boys’ shot put) and the U15 AAA Lancers’ Easton Holte (junior boys’ triple jump). Holte, who spent most of the year at Lloyd’s Pursuit School of Sport, placed seventh while representing his hometown Hughenden school. He jumped 11.45 metres.
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