A small band of Hyack athletes made New Westminster Secondary School history, winning the B.C. high school track and field championships on Saturday.
The 10 New West performers – including outstanding female athlete of the meet 15-year-old junior Nina Schultz, and double-gold sprint champion Raquel Tjernagel – garnered 89 total points to nip defending titlist and 10-time champion Oak Bay by a single point in aggregate team scoring at the 47th annual provincial meet in Langley.
For Schultz, who was almost casual after being named the meet’s top female, hearing her school’s name called as the girls’ aggregate and overall banner winners was a thrill.
“Oh my God, we won,” Schultz exclaimed as she excitedly jumped up to help accept the championship banners. “We won the banners. It’s actually awesome.”
Schultz is the first athlete from New Westminster to be named most outstanding female athlete and just the third Royal City performer to ever win top meet perfomer since long distance runner Jeff Schiebler in 1991 and Scott Nielson, who swept the weight throw events, in 1974 and ’75.
Tjernagel, who won both the senior girls’ 100 and 200 metres in personal best times, was equally satisfied with the history-making accomplishment.
“I’m just proud of my school being rewarded with these two banners,” said the Grade 11 runner.
The talented pair shared in earning six individual and relay gold medals for New West.
A week earlier, Schultz won the girls’ heptathlon in the combined events championships in Abbotsford. She then set personal bests at the Langley meet with a 1.75m leap in the high jump and an 11.66m triple jump.
Tjernagel edged 10th Avenue rival and runner-up Zion Corrales-Nelson of St. Thomas More in both sprints, taking the 100m in a sub-12 second 11.93 and then the 200m by a step in 24.44.
The pair also teamed up with senior Amanda Zacharuk and Emily Chilton for gold in the 4x400m relay in the final race of the day that clinched the team banner for the Royal City. Sarah Stuart helped qualify New West in the relays, including the school’s fourth-place-finishing 4x100m girls’ team.
The Hyack team got help from senior Ethan Strome, who won the boys’ 400m hurdles in a time of 55.70.
Another hurdler, Bogdan Pavel, placed second in the 100m race, posting the second-fastest time in a decade just one-tenth of a second behind race winner Andrew De Visser of Prince of Wales.
Pavel and Strome also won a bronze in the 4x100m relay with Matthew Seymour and Jamie Shiho.
“We were blessed with some great athletes this year,” said NWSS track coach Bryan MacMaster. “It was a real opportunity to represent something, representing their school New West, and I think they’re really proud of that.
“The fact that we won by only a point goes to show how valuable everyone’s contribution was to the team’s success.”
