Braden Kersey of the Seaton Sonics placed eighth in the senior boys’ division at the Okanagan Valley Cross Country Running Championships Tuesday in Kamloops.
A total of 264 athletes from 40 schools competed on a warm, sunny course at Stake Lake. The junior boys category was the largest with 100 runners with Seaton taking the team title.
Kersey qualified for the B.C. finals, Nov. 3, in Nanaimo, by covering the 6.3-kilometre race in 25 minutes and 14.8 seconds.
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Logan Hwang of the Westsyde Whundas in Kamloops was first in 23:04.8 followed by Keegan Ingram of the Summerland Rockets (23:13.4).
“Despite the delayed starts, our athletes did great,” said VSS head coach Mark Bendall. “Everyone pushed hard for their best race of the season, and we had some awesome results. Our highlights include Carter’s (Leahy) third and Brody’s (Wright) seventh in the junior boys, leading our team to a second-place podium position (67 points). There were 13 schools with teams in this very competitive category. In senior boys, Henrik (Rudert) fought hard in a very fast field to earn a provincial championships qualifying 16th place (26:49.8). Unfortunately, our team score of 75 points was not enough to earn one of the top-three qualifying berths to provincials.”
Leahy posted a 15:36.1, while Torin Andrews of Seaton was sixth in 15:43.4 ahead of Wright (15:47.2). Jack Screen of Seaton was eighth in 15:52.7 and Gage Stoll of Seaton was 11th in 16:29.6. Matthew Acob of the Kalamalka Lakers took 16th in 16:41.8, while Mitchell Bond of VSS was 24th in 17:22 and Ty Bartell of the Sonics 27th in 17:36.8.
The junior boys race was 4.2 kilometres. The top-20 runners in each age group move to the provincials.
Jaxon Slaney of the Rutland Voodoo won the senior girls race in 27:39.9, while Alexandra Luxmore of Rutland topped the junior girls run in 17:38.1
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