From Feb. 27 to March 2, Mystery Lake Athletics went to Winnipeg for the Boeing Classic Indoor Track Meet. This meet is recognized as the provincial indoor championships. In total there were 10 athletes who competed in a variety of events. On Sunday March 2, the athletes received training from provincial track coaches and from Manitoba Bisons coaches in one-on-one sessions. The athletes had a great time and were very successful.
The athletes were very successful in high jump, where we received three medals. In the youth category, Raylene Dysart jumped her way to a gold medal. She jumped a height of 1.5 metres. Nathan Traverse-Smith also jumped to a gold medal with a height of 1.49 metres in the bantam category. Nathan also set his personal best at that height. Jack Kennedy won a silver medal with a personal best of 1.65 metres in the midget category. Mitchell Szabo, also competing as a midget, finished fourth in the event, with a personal best of 1.45 metres.
We had several athletes who competed in the sprints. Landon Dobson ran in the youth 200 metres as did Karly Kraychuk. These two competed in the sprints to work on their kick for their distance events. Vatineh Magaji competed in the 60-metre sprint, 60-metre hurdles and 200 metres. Vatineh finished half a second from competing in the finals for the 60 metres. All of these athletes competed in the youth category.
In the midget category we had Taylor House, Mitchell Szabo, Jashan Sandhu and Jack Kennedy compete. All of these athletes competed in the 60 metres, 200 metres and 300 metres at the event. Jack Kennedy won medals in the all three events; winning a bronze in the 60 metres with a time of 7.73 seconds and silver medals in the 200 metres, with a time of 25.06 seconds, and the 300 metres, with a time of 39.36 seconds.
Deandra Howard won silver in the shot put with her best throw being 10.06 metres. Deandra worked hard to help organize the other athletes and then worked extremely hard on one-on-one sessions with the Bisons throws coach. Deandra worked to refine her technique for this event.
The midget boys put together a 4x100-metre relay team and finished with a bronze medal. The athletes for this event were Jack Kennedy, Mitchell Szabo, Jashan Szabo and Nathan Traverse-Smith (who moved up from bantam to compete). The boys finished with a time of 55.62 seconds. The youth girls also entered a 4x100-metre relay team with Raylene Dysart, Vatineh Magaji, Karly Kraychuk and Taylor House (who moved up from midget) competing in the event. The girls finished in sixth place with time of one minute flat.
The team of Raylene Dysart, Karly Kraychuk and Taylor House also competed in the 4x400-metre relay in the senior division with Rebecca Carr, a teacher from Burntwood Elementary School. The team finished with a gold medal and Miss Carr finished with a track burn from wiping out on the finish line during a handoff.
Nathan Traverse-Smith competed in the 800 metres and the 1,200 metres. Nathan is going to continue to work on form and pacing while training throughout the spring to prepare for the outdoor season. Landon Dobson ran in the 400 metres and the 800 metres in the youth category. He was competing against tough competition as Jay Ort broke the provincial indoor record in the 800 metres. Jack Kennedy ran an 800-metre race in the midget category. Karly Kraychuk also competed as a youth in the 400 metres and 800 metres, finishing in ninth place in the 800.
The group of athletes is going to continue to train throughout the spring in order to compete in the outdoor season. A big thank you to the School District of Mystery Lake for supporting this endeavour.
