Lions pick up 10 medals at OFSAA Championships

The high school track and field season culminated this past weekend in Belleville with the ever exciting OFSAA Championships where Lions athletes took home a combined 10 medals over the three days of competition, including three gold.
Ridgemont freshman Joe Fast lived up to his name over the weekend, capturing gold in Friday’s midget boys 1500m final. It was Fast’s final sprint down the home stretch which secured his victory in 4 minutes 7.16 seconds over Wiliam Mulock’s Dakota Goguen.
Fast followed up with a silver over 800m on Saturday, crossing the line in 2:01.61. However, nipping at his heals was Zachary Meredith, who has battled with Fast all season long. Meredith, of De La Salle, was third in 2:01.94 for his first OFSAA track medal.
Also picking up the OFSAA double was grade 10 student Brandon Ovington who won a silver and bronze in the junior boys shot put and discus respectively. Ovington, from West Carleton Secondary School, added nearly nine metres to his lifetime best in the event to finish third at 59.04m on Thursday. The next afternoon, Brandon moved up a step on the podium with a 17.08m heave for silver in the shot put.
Back on the track, golds were picked up by graduating hurdlers Keira Christie-Galloway and Austin White. Keira defended her 100m hurdle title, winning in 13.53 seconds. White was victorious in the 400m hurdles in a personal best 54.07 seconds. It was Austin’s first OFSAA gold after finishing second in last year’s final.
Ashbury College’s Sharelle Samuel receives the distinction of producing the best performance of the championship not to win gold, as the grade 11 student set personal best of 53.75 in the senior girls 400m to finish 0.24 seconds behind Guelph Centennial’s Ashlan Best. Samuel’s time moves her to number five in club history, jumping ahead of Olympian Alicia Brown.
Rounding out the medals were junior girl Helena Jovic, who was also a silver medalist over 400m in a personal best 57.24, and Caroline Poirier who cleared 3.30m in the senior girls pole vault for bronze. Finishing right behind Caroline were teammates Annabelle Gagne and Julia Maine who each set personal bests en-route to finishing 4th and 6th respectively.