With the West Conference Championship already in the books, last Thursday was the kick off to the road to OFSAA for those schools in the NCSSAA East Conference. An exciting day for athletes was marked by an impressive haul of 25 individual gold medals by Ottawa Lions athletes.
Picking right where he left off in the last high school season, Zachary Jeggo took top spot in the senior boys 400 metres and 400 metre hurdle events in convincing fashion. In both events, the grade 11 student at Louis-Riel laid down the third fastest performances of his life with times of 48.73 seconds and 56.32 seconds respectively.
Topping the individual gold tally was Shannon Dewar of St. Francis Xavier. The grade 10 student earned top spot in the 200 and 400-metre events as well as the 300-metre hurdles. Among Dewar’s triple triumph came a new lifetime best of 58.88 seconds over 400 metres.
Glebe’s Lauren Alexander swept the senior girls middle distance events. The grade 12 student topped the 800-metre field in 2 minutes and 25.48 seconds and was first across the line at 1500 metres with a run of 4:55.38.
Charlie Mortimer of Hillcrest also completed a distance double – taking top spot in both the junior boys 1500 and 3000 metre events. Mortimer edged out Colonel By’s Owen Siderus over 3000 metres, winning 9:43.01 to 9:43.78. In contrast, he finished six and a half seconds ahead of the field at 1500 metres, crossing the line in a time of 4 minutes and 14.96 seconds.
Béatrice-Desloges’ Taisei Tan was very impressive in the hurdle events. Tan took top spot in both the junior 100-metre and 300-metre events with times of 14.58 seconds and 41.66 seconds respectively.
In field events, Salome Kuemmerle of Brookfield topped the junior high jump with a clearance of 1.45 metres, while Deborah Bwana of Mer Bleue took first in the junior shot put with a throw of 9.88 metres. Senior competitor Katie Purves from Franco-Cite excelled in both the shot put and javelin throw, achieving distances of 9.87 metres and 26.55 metres, respectively en route to double gold.
High school action resumes this week with the NCSSAA Championships on May 22nd and 23rd at Terry Fox Athletic Facility. The top five athletes each event this week will earn a spot at the East Regional High School Championships the following week in Brockville