After a year away from the track due to the 2014 labour conflicts between the British Columbia Teachers' Federation and the B.C. Public School Employers' Association, elementary students, teachers, parents and organizers were happy to get back to the Charles Hays track and stretch their legs before the school year ends.
Last Thursday, Grades 3, 4 and 5 students from Pineridge, Roosevelt, Lax Kxeen, Conrad and Port Edward Elementary schools gathered to see who could take home first-place in a number of categories including distance races, high jump, long jump, ball throw and relay.
And the skilled athletes who garnered top-three finishes included Lax Kxeen's Catalina Gonzales (first) and Ava Edwards (second) in Grades 3-4 girls' high jump, Sage Buchanan (first), Josh Leighton (second) and Robert Christenson (third) in Grades 3-4 boys' high jump and Nikki Davis (first) from Conrad, Grace Campbell (second) from Conrad and Shanica Aksidan (third) from Roosevelt rounded out the top three Grade 5 girls' high jump scores.
In Grade 5 boys' high jump, Ole Rysstad from Conrad took first, Lax Kxeen's Nicholas Vanderberg grabbed second and Kaiden Munro (Conrad) and Zack Campbell (Pineridge) tied for third.
Kanani Coon (Conrad) took first in Grades 3-4 girls' long jump, while Taylor Jackson (Roosevelt) nabbed second and Summer Leavitt (Conrad) finished third.
The Grades 3-4 boys' long jump counterparts saw Jaden Andreesen nab first, Jacob Taylor take second (both from Pineridge) and Robert Christenson from Roosevelt grabbed third.
The Grade 5 girls' long jump had Kwiadda McEvoy take first (Conrad) with Renese Ebanks (Roosevelt) in second and Claire Davies (Lax Kxeen) in third. For the Grade 5 boys' long jump, Rysstad grabbed first once again and Jesse McKay and David Delil from Port Edward tied for second, while Kevin Nguyen (Lax Kxeen) took third.
Elly Lowe (Port Ed) was champion of the Grades 3-4 girls' ball throw, while Pineridge's Lexi Bryant took second and Summer Leavitt-Roberts (Conrad) nabbed third.
The Grades 3-4 boys' ball throw top three included Kole Leighton (Lax Kxeen) in first, Daren Budskin (Pineridge) in second and Port Ed's Kalen Rhynold in third.
Sam Wiley (Lax Kxeen) was the winner of Grade 5 girls' ball throw with Nikki Davis (Conrad) as first runner-up and Port Ed's Makayla Floyd in third.
The Grade 5 boys' ball throw champion was Port Ed's Tyson Leask, followed by Jacob Gordon (Pineridge) in second and Chase Leighton-Stevens (Conrad) in third.
The Grades 3-4 girls' 50m winner was Hyla McQuad (Roosevelt) with Summer Leavitt in second and Reign Williams (Roosevelt) in third.
The boys' Grades 3-4 50m first-place champ was Gavin Magnusson (Pineridge), followed by Logan Philips (Port Ed) and Finn de la Nuez (Roosevelt).
Coon grabbed first in the Grades 3-4 100m girls' division, with Anna Nguyen (Conrad) in second and Katie Van (Lax Kxeen) in third.
The boys' Grades 3-4 100m champ was Robert Christenson while Josh Leighton took second and Logan Phillipe (Port Ed) grabbed third.
Lowe nabbed first overall again in Grade 5 girls' 100m. Kwiadda McEvoy claimed second and Julia Lorette (Roosevelt) took third.
Pineridge's Noah Aceto finished first in Grade 5 boys' 100m, with Graham Larsen (Pineridge) in second and Kevin Nguyen in third.
In the Grades 3-4 200m girls' race, Coon was victorious, Heather Truong (Conrad) was first runner-up and Lowe came in third.
In the Grades 3-4 200m boys' equivalent, Josh Leighton took first, Andreesen nabbed second and de la Nuez came in third.
For the Grade 5 girls' 200m, Cindy Wu (Pineridge) took first, Julia Lorette finished second and Kwiadda McEvoy took third.
Braydon Le (Conrad) nabbed first in Grade 5 boys' 200m, Kade Jones (Pineridge) grabbed second and George Henry (Roosevelt) finished third.
Grace Campbell (Conrad) finished first in the Grade 5 girls' 400m while Ebanks took second and Wiley nabbed third.
On the boys' side, Pineridge's Sam Irvin claimed first overall in Grade 5 boys' 400m, while Brandon Lee from Conrad took second and Rysstad took third.
In the girls' 800m open category, Taylor Mah Jackson (Roosevelt) crossed the yellow finish line first, with Coon following close behind and Lowe finishing third.
For the boys' 800m open, Max de la Nuez claimed first overall, while Robert Christenson took second and Graham Larsen (Roosevelt) snatched third.
Finally, in the relays, Conrad won the Grades 3-4 girls' event, followed by Roosevelt and Lax Kxeen in third, while Roosevelt took first in the Grades 3-4 boys' relay, with Conrad finishing second and Lax Kxeen in third.
For the Grade 5 girls, Conrad topped Roosevelt for first place and Lax Kxeen finished third once again and for the Grade 5 boys, Conrad claimed top spot with Pineridge in second and Lax Kxeen in third.