Congratulations to the twenty-eight JD athletes – Brent B, Nicholas, Charlie, Aidan, Matthew, Brent S, Connor, Michael, Patrick, Sean, Max, Ben, Katie, JiWon, Jasmine, Lauren G, Ellie, Maria, Jessica, Melissa, Lauren F, Chase, Emily, Delainy, Anna, Emma, Mia and Heather – who participated in the Dino Classic yesterday. I was so pleased that twenty-eight of the thirty-one JD athletes competed in the Classic. It is great to see so many athletes participating in the meets.
Despite the long December break and lack of training, and the copious amounts of turkey, latkes and sweets that were no doubt consumed over the holidays, the athletes showed remarkable improvement since the meet in December. Twenty athletes achieved a personal best performance (PB) in at least one of their events, andBrent B, Nicholas, Ellie, Chase, Delainy, Anna, and Heather achieved PBs in multiple events. Nicholas, Aidan, Connor, Michael, Patrick, Sean, Max, Ben, Katie, Ellie, Jessica, Chase, Emily, Delainy, Emma, Mia and Heather all finished in the top five in at least one of their events, with Nicholas, Aidan, Max, Ben, Chase, Emma and Mia finishing in the top five in more than one event.
Here are a few highlights from the meet:
Mia had another outstanding meet, finishing 1st of five 12-year-old girls in the 60m in 9.26s and 2nd of six athletes in the 150m, in a personal best time of 22.68s. Well done Mia!
Emma also had an outstanding meet, finishing 2nd of twelve 13-year-old girls in the 150m in a personal best time of 21.59s and 2nd of ten athletes in the 60m, where she finished in 9.07s. In her first attempt at the 1000m,Emma finished 2nd of six athletes. Well done Emma!
Nicholas followed up a stellar performance at the December meet with more impressive results at this meet.Nicholas was 2nd of nine 15-year-old boys in the 60m, where he finished in a personal best time of 7.83s. In the 300m, Nicholas finished 4th of thirteen athletes, crossing the line in 42.23s, a PB of 3.24s. Well doneNicholas!
Ben, one of JD’s youngest athletes, produced some impressive results, just as he had done at the December meet. In the 1000m, Ben finished 2nd of five 12-year-old boys in 3:55.05s, while in the 60m, Ben was 2nd of five athletes in 9.64s. Well done Ben!
Ellie ran a PB time of 45.56s in the 300m to finish 2nd of ten 15-year-old girls. In the 60m, Ellie also ran a personal best, finishing in 8.74s and 7th of fifteen athletes. Well done Ellie!
Max proved that he has a lot of stamina and talent by finishing in the top five in all three of his individual events. At his first attempt at the 1000m, Max finished 1st of five 13-year-old boys in a time of 3:46.44s. In the 150m,Max finished 4th of seven athletes in a personal best time of 23.30s. Finally, in the 60m, Max finished 5th of nine athletes in a time of 9.56s. Well done Max!
JD captain Chase had another outstanding meet, finishing in the top three in all of her individual events and achieving PBs in two of the events. In the 1000m, Chase took an impressive 21.33s off last year’s PB, finishing 2nd of six 14-year-old girls in a time of 3:23.39s. In the 300m, Chase finished 3rd of ten athletes in a personal best time of 46.17s. Finally, in the 60m, Chase finished 3rd of eight athletes in a time of 8.96s. Well doneChase!
Emily ran a PB of 8.81s in the 14-year-old girls’ 60m to finish 2nd of eight athletes. Well done Emily!
At his first attempt at the 1000m, Patrick finished 2nd of five 13-year-old boys in 3:48.44s. Well done Patrick!
Sean took almost half a second off his PB in the 150m, where he finished 6th in a time of 24.57s. In his first attempt at the 1000m, Sean finished 3rd of five athletes in a time of 3:48.78s, while in his first attempt at the 60m, Sean finished 6th in a time of 9.63s. Well done Sean!
Aidan took more than two seconds off his PB in the 300m, finishing in 44.49s and 5th of thirteen 15-year-old boys. In his first attempt at the 1000m, Aidan finished 4th of eleven athletes in 3:17.39s. Well done Aidan!
In his first 300m, Connor finished 5th of ten 14-year-old boys in a time of 48.93s. Well done Connor!
Katie ran a personal best time of 47.69s in the 300m where she finished 7th and placed 3rd in her first attempt at the 1000m, where she finished in 3:34.67s. Well done Katie!
JD Captain Jasmine ran a personal best time of 8.74s in the 60m and ran a very impressive first leg for the Power and Speed 4x200m relay team, where Jasmine held her own amongst the older athletes. Well doneJasmine!
Jessica finished the 300m in a personal best time of 46.73s and placed 5th of ten 15-year-old girls. Well doneJessica!
Despite being convinced that she isn’t able to run a 300m, Maria finished 9th in a personal best time of 51.62s. Well done Maria!
Delainy produced some excellent results in all three of her individual events. In her first attempt at the 1000m,Delainy finished 5th. In the 150m, Delainy finished 6th of twelve 13-year-old girls in a personal best time of 24.35s. In the 60m, Delainy finished 7th in a personal best time of 9.76s. Well done Delainy!
Anna demonstrated just how much stronger she is becoming by achieving personal best performances in both the 60m and 150m. Well done Anna!
Heather, one of our youngest athletes, achieved personal best performances in both the 60m and 150m, where she finished 5th and 6th respectively. Well done Heather!
Brent B was another athlete who demonstrated how much stronger he is becoming. Brent established PBs in both the 60m and 300m. Well done Brent!
Brent S ran a personal best time of 9.33s in the 60m to finish 6th of the 14-year-old boys. Well done Brent!
Matthew tried two new events and established some tough standards to challenge himself with at future meets.Matthew was 7th in the 60m in a time of 9.05s. Well done Matthew!
Michael ran a personal best in the 60m and was one of the youngest athletes to tackle the challenging 1000m. Well done Michael!
For JiWon, this was her first competition, and she looked remarkably composed on the track. JiWon ran very well in the 60m and 300m, but was particularly impressive in the 4x200m relay, where she ran a very fast 3rd leg for her team. Well done JiWon!
Lauren G ran a personal best in the 60m, where she finished 13th. Well done Lauren!
Lauren F was one of JD’s busier athletes, competing in the 60m, 300m, 1000m and relay, where she established some tough standards to challenge herself with at future meets. Lauren finished 6th in both the 300m and 1000m. Well done Lauren!
Despite the fact that the relay competition was open and the JD athletes had to compete against much older athletes, I threw in some teams and told the athletes to practice their exchanges and have some fun. I must admit, I was impressed with the exchanges and the results.
The Power and Speed Group was short an athlete for their girls’ relay team, so Jasmine agreed to run up with her older CALTAF teammates. The team of Jasmine to Allison Stephen to Melissa Hazen to Nikki Charlesworth ran a very impressive race, finishing 4th behind two University of Calgary varsity teams and a senior team from Calgary International. Jasmine, Allison, Melissa and Nikki finished the 4x200m in an impressive 1:53.83s, just six seconds behind the 3rd place varsity team.
If the JD girls were intimidated by the considerably more senior University of Calgary varsity athletes or the Calgary International athletes, it certainly didn’t show. The team of Jessica to Ellie to Katie to Melissafinished 7th in a time of 2:01.11s, while the team of Emma to Chase to Lauren F to Emma Dixon of the Calgary Spartans finished just behind their JD teammates in a time of 2:01.58s. We are most grateful to Emma Dixon of the Calgary Spartans, who agreed to run with CALTAF when we were short a relay runner. Emmaran a very impressive final leg against Natasha Smallwood of Leduc. The team of Emily to Lauren G to JiWonto Maria finished 9th in 2:14.53s, while our youngest team of Mia to Anna to Delainy to Heather looked very impressive and finished not far behind their older teammates in 2:18.55s. Well done ladies!
The JD boys’ relay teams were in a tough field of three University of Calgary varsity teams and two senior CALTAF and Calgary Warriors teams. Despite the pressure, all teams ran very well. The team of Nicholas toAidan to Brent B to Connor finished 6th in a time of 2:05.17s, while the team of Charlie to Matthew toBrent S to Sean finished 7th in 2:14.89s. Our youngest team of Max to Patrick to Michael to Ben also ran very well, finishing just three seconds behind their older teammates in 2:17.29s. Well done gentlemen!
I am looking forward to the next meet where our relay teams will be competing in two-year age categories.
Congratulations to all JD athletes. Those are impressive results. Well done! See you tomorrow!
Robin
