McMath Wildcats' young up-and-coming talent was on full display again at last weekend's B.C. Secondary Schools Track and Field Championships in Langley.
The Wildcats captured their first-ever Richmond title last month, thanks mainly to the Steveston school's dominance at the Grade 8-to-10 levels - pushing them past defending champion MacNeill and perennial powerhouse Cambie for the very first time. That group also showed it can stack up with the province's very best too.
Leading the charge was by multi-talented Grade 10 standout Sara Cathcart who walked away from the championships with four medals.
Her busy weekend was highlighted by a first place finish in the in the junior girls' high jump with a best leap of 1.55 metres. She added a third place in the long jump thanks to a personal best leap of 1.55 metres.
Cathcart was also prominent on the track, teaming up with Zandalee Uyeyama, Kelsey Jackson and Meghan Higashitani to finish second in the 4x100 relay. Cathcart, Uyeyama and Higashitani then joined Georgia Booker for a gutsy bronze medal performance in the 4x400 relay.
McMath was sitting second on the final leg when anchor runner Higashitani collided with another team and almost fell. She overcame the mishap and a sore knee to still get her team on the podium and nearly reel in the runner-up finisher.
At one point, Cathcart had to juggle three events at the same time. She stepped away from the long jump competition to run the 4x100 and came back to qualify for the finals. That gave her three more jumps before racing off for the 4x400 relay.
McMath's juniors also enjoyed success in field events as Camryn Rogers captured the hammer throw with a best effort of over 53 metres.
She also added a bronze in the shot put thanks to a throw of 12.41 metrees.
Thanks to Cathcart and Rogers' performances the Wildcats finished second in the final junior girls team standings
to Semiahmoo. Both girls train with the Richmond Kajaks.
Other highlighted performances for McMath included the Grade 8 boys 4x100 relay team of Nicholas Higashitani, Nishaan Dulay, Benny Bruschinski and Andre Belisle finishing third. Nicholas Higashitani was also sixth in the 100 metres and eighth in the 200Sarah Kamimura was fourth in the Grade 8 girls high jump event, while Connor Forsyth nearly made the podium in the senior boys high jump, placing fourth with a best leap 1.85 metres.
Meanwhile McNair sprinter Georgia Lam, a Kajaks' teammate of Cathcart and Rogers, won silver in the junior girls 100 metres with a clocking of 12.57. She also placed fifth in the 200 (26.62).
Cambie's Riley Pawlik also reached the podium with a silver medal finish in the junior boys long jump. Teammate Andrew Ton was seventh.
McRoberts' Michelle Chan won bronze in the junior girls javelin.
Richmond athletes were prominent in the Grade 8 boys long jump as Burnett's Eric Che was fourth, followed by Cambie's Sheldon Cabeltes in sixth and McMath's Andre Belisle in eighth.
Cambie senior athlete Mohamed Abdul Baasit advanced to the 100 metre final, placing eighth in a time of 11.16 seconds. He just missed out on the 200 final as well, with the 10th fastest qualifying time (23.06).
Steveston-London's Merveilles Amisi won silver in the Grade 8 boys triple jump with a best leap of 11.20 metres.
MacNeill's Kyle San Juan was fifth in the Grade 8 boys discus. Aljon Palino (Cambie) was eighth in the Grade 8 boys high jump and Amisi 11th.
Burnett's Rami Hamdan was 12th Grade 8 boys shot put. MacNeill's Leena Douk placed ninth in the Grade 8 girls shot put.
Adrian Emata (Cambie) was 11th in senior boys long jump. Nisha Dulay (McMath) was eighth in the Grade 8 800 metres.
