The College Heights Cougars paced themselves to berths in the B.C. high school track and field championships in Langley next month.
The Cougars competed at the north central zone meet on the weekend at Masich Place Stadium. The top two male and female junior (Grades 9-10) and senior (Grades 11-12) athletes in each event qualified for provincials.
In the end, five athletes from College Heights qualified in eight events.
In senior girls, Carolina Hiller (who won three silver medals in long track speed skating at the Canada Winter Games) will race in two events in Langley after a strong showing at zones. She clocked 13.53 seconds in the 100-metre race to finish second behind Emma Floris of Nechako Valley, who won the event in 13.1. In the 400m run, Hiller won with a time of 1:02.
Her teammate Rebeka Kidd cleared 4.36m to win the high jump.
In senior boys, Hiller's teammate Omar Medina qualified in the 100m by winning the sprint in 11.63 seconds. He also leaped 5.98 metres to win the long jump.
Lauren Matheson and Jynessa Kaulback were the top College Heights qualifiers in junior girls.
Matheson and Kaulback finished first and second respectively in the 100m, while Matheson also won the 200m race.
Kaulback soared 4.6m to win the long jump, while Matheson was right behind her to finish second with a distance of 4.53m.
Three athletes from PGSS qualified to compete in Langley.
Charel Karier clocked 58.98 seconds to finish second in the senior boys 400m behind Konrad Teetzan of Quesnel's Correlieu secondary.
Karier also finished second behind D.P. Todd's Ryan Gaiesky in the senior boys 110m hurdles.
In junior girls, Shelby Jansen won the 200m race in 27.01 seconds, and the 400m in 1.03 minutes. Her Polars teammate Lindsay King followed in second place in 1.04 minutes.
Gaiesky, a hurdles specialist from the D.P. Todd Trojans, qualified for provincials in both of his events. He clocked 58.22 seconds to win the senior boys 400m hurdles, and 15.89 seconds to take the 110m crown.
His Trojan teammate Arik Andreshefski finished second behind Alex Nemethy of Nechako Valley in the 3,000m with a time of 11:35 to earn a provincial berth.
Duchess Park's Raliat Abioya won the senior girls javelin with a toss of 16.44m. Her Condors teammate Jennifer Yu was the top junior girl in the javelin with a distance of 25.04 metres.
The provincial championships are June 4-6 at McLeod Park.
