Seventeen athletes from the Alberni District Secondary School Armada track and field team travelled to South Whidbey Island in Washington State on Easter weekend to compete in the Westling Invitational track meet.
The event was the team’s first competition of the season and also the first good weather they have seen all year.
On the sunny South Whidbey High School track, the Armada competed hard against their American counterparts, with several Top 3 finishes and two event-winning performances.
Nikeisha Dass (Grade 9) won the girls triple jump, handling changing wind conditions to win with a personal best (PB) jump of 32 feet.
“It was even a PB when we converted it back to metric (9.75m) for her,” one of the ADSS coaches said.
Clint Haley (Grade 12) found comfort in English to metric conversion rates as well, throwing a massive PB of 174’ 10” (53.29 metres) to win the boys javelin, throwing 20 feet further than his closest competitor.
Graham Villette celebrated his birthday a day early by placing third in the boys discus (109’ 2”) and fourth in the boys high jump (5’ 6”).
The girls 4x100-metre relay team of Celeste McCarthy, Dass, Morgan Van Vliet and Janelle Beckett finished third, as did the boys 4x100m team of Braydon Namor, Villette, Taylor Heck and Colby Lim.
Lim was injured in the relay race and had to watch the rest of the meet along with teammate Mackenzie Kemps, also injured, overcoming disappointment to cheer on their teammates.
Next up for the whole Armada track and field team is the North Island Championships to be held in conjunction with the Bob Dailey Memorial meet April 30–May 1 in Port Alberni.