Toughing it out at zones
Kane-Rissling overcomes illness, Hat High wins banner at track
As a top-ranked club track athlete, Madison Kane-Rissling shouldn’t have had much to worry about at Thursday’s South Zone championships.
On any other week the Grade 12 Monsignor McCoy star could cruise through to provincials.
Not so much when she was so sick she could barely speak.
And yet, there she was at the end of the day, topping the senior girls aggregate standings and qualified in three events for the June 1-2 Alberta meet in Red Deer.
“At first, I wasn’t feeling too bad this morning,” she said, her voice almost a whisper at the end of a gruelling day at Medicine Hat’s Rotary Track. “I woke up and was fine but it gradually got worse.
“It is what it is, I’ve just got to power through it kind of thing.”
Kane-Rissling won the triple jump with a 10.14-metre effort — her first of the six-attempt event — plus took second in long jump with 4.58 metres and second in 100-metre dash, her 14.02second time behind Hat High’s Savannah Zee (13.76) but as a top-two finisher enough to move ahead to provincials.
She was third in high jump, well short of Hat High’s Gloria Lokbai’s winning clearance of 1.60 metres, “But it was a still a good day.”
A brutal cough punished her voicebox all week. Despite lots of tea and cough syrup, Thursday was one of the tougher meets she’s endured. The plus-30 Celsius temperatures probably didn’t help much, either.
“I’m just glad I can carry on to provincials, that’ll be fun,” said the Grade 12 athlete.
Lots of Hat-area athletes advanced as well, led by the huge Hat High contingent that easily captured the 4A South Zone banner. Their combined 527 points dwarfed any other team, as Lethbridge Collegiate was second with 195 (but still took the 3A banner). Raymond (108 points) won 2A and Nanton’s JT Foster (123 points) was the 1A champ.
Ethan Hicks was among the many Mohawks who qualified in multiple events, taking both the intermediate boys 100 and 200 metre dashes in 11.39 and 23.33 seconds respectively. He also led off Hat High’s goldmedal-winning 4x100 relay, as teammate Braeden Long held off LCI’s Will Boehme by 17 hundredths at the finish to win in 47.15 seconds.
“I know when I’m at (provincials) and I’m in the blocks the last time, I’m going to be so sad,” said the Grade 12 athlete who missed his Grade 10 season due to a broken leg. “Bittersweet. Last year when I was there I was so happy.”
The broken leg happened when Hicks was still primarily a soccer player. Suffice to say he took that as a sign.
“I used to play soccer, I was garbage at it,” he laughed. “I was just faster than everyone else. I’d kick it and get there first. “So track, I’m good at this.” His 100-metre run was a new personal best, after he was fifth with an 11.50-second mark at last year’s provincials.
Other top Hat High finishers included aggregate winners Taya Karsten in junior girls and Kyle Spackman in junior boys.
Plenty of meet records were smashed Thursday as well. Chinook’s Brock Jensen set one in junior boys 3,000 metre with a time of 9:29.78. St. Michael’s Mathias Gelber ran the junior boys 800 in 2:02.37. Joshua Suelzle of Hat High threw the shot put 13.53 metres in sweeping the junior boys’ throwing events. Chinook’s Solen Wood ran the intermediate boys 3,000 in 9:24.25. Nanton’s Brandon Mosher won senior boys discus with a record 34.53-metre fling. The Catholic Central 4x400 metre relay team finished in 3:41.44, 10 seconds better than the old mark. St. Michael’s ambulatory shot putter Lliam Reusser won with a 3.04 metre effort. Zee broke her own mark in 300 metre open hurdles, 48.84 seconds and Eagle Butte’s Gage Reinhart ran the event in 41.92 seconds for a boys record. Raymond’s Kansas Long set a new penathlon mark with 2,621 points.