HRH cross country take on provincials

Holy Redeemer’s Athletics Program has widely been regarded as one of the most competitive and engaging programs in the province. With several championship sports within the program such as basketball and volleyball, one can now add cross country running to the list.

On Saturday October 17, five high school students travelled to Grande Prairie to compete in the Provincial Cross Country Championship.

“Our students ran very well,” says Head Coach Julie Pullaw. “The format pits all size schools against one another. So that means our school, which is a 2A school, must compete against the large 4A schools.” This did not stop the competitors from running excellent races.

To qualify for provincials, each athlete needed to have a high placement in the 2A Zone Championships at Wilmore Park in Edson on October 7. HRH co-hosted the event that saw 300 runners from 22 schools compete. In the end HRH saw grade 10 student Josie Sorensen, grade 11 student Zane Hartman, and grade 12 students Brandy Stewart, Shawn DeLeeuw and Tomas Mark all represent HRH at provincials.

In the Junior Girls category, Sorensen placed 65th with a time of 15:13, while Stewart placed 87th in the Senior Girls category (4 km) with a time of 20:44.

Within the Intermediate Boys (5 km) category, Hartman ran 5 km in 20:54, while Senior Boys Mark and DeLeeuw placed 24th (23:37) and 51st (25:18) respectively.

With this dedicated group of runners, HRH managed to place 5th out of all 44 2A schools across Alberta. “It was a very challenging course at Wapiti Nordic Ski Trails,” says Pullaw. “But this didn’t stop our athletes from achieving their personal bests. There were over 100 runners in each race, which shows how well our students performed.”

And with that, our community can be very proud of these fine young athletes.