Richmond Christian is home to the city’s latest provincial high school champion.
Josh Woolgar captured the senior boys race at Saturday’s B.C. Secondary School’s Cross-Country Championships in Nanaimo. The Grade 12 student pulled away from Mt. Doug’s Liam Dwyer for a five second victory. He ran the three lap 6.2 km course in 20:32. The event featured a whopping 262 entries.
“Liam and I separated from the field in the last 500 meters as I was chasing him down, and when I saw my coach yelling for me to ‘go now,’ I emptied the tank and managed to pass him with 150 (metres) to go and put a few seconds on him with my kick,” said Woolgar.
He is the first Richmond student-athlete to win gold at cross-country provincials since McMath’s Sam Pawluk did it 16 years ago.
Woolgar was considered the pre-race favourite after capturing the youth men’s title at the B.C. Athletics Cross-Country Championships a week earlier in Abbotsford. A member of the South Surrey-based Coastal Track Club, he has made tremendous progress under coach Scott Kent thanks to his passion for running and dedication to training.
He was 194th in his high school provincials debut in Grade 9, 94th in Grade 10 then 37th a year ago.
“I was confident, but nervous for the race as it was my last B.C. high school cross country race ever,” Woolgar continued. “I was expecting a very competitive race. I knew that I could win it from the start, but that I would definitely have to dig really deep and ‘hurt’ a lot to get it done.”
Steveston-London Grade 11 student Evan De Souza also had a solid showing, placing 57th in a time of 22:55.
Woolgar’s Richmond Christian teammate Romain Toureille Du Labr was 162nd (25:03) while McMath sprint star Carson Bradley showed his versatility by placing 174th (25:21). MacNeill was well-represented by Usman Tung, Everett Ho, Sky Tan and Gabriel Nave.
In the senior girls race, McMath standout athlete Morgan Flynn finished 59th among 226 entries. The Grade 12 was clocked in 27:23 over the 6.2 km distance.
McMath also finished 13th among the junior girls teams thanks to the efforts of Selin Tasdemir (19th), Ashley Maedel (20th), Sophie James (57th) and Charlotte Murray (115th). The 4.2 km race featured 239 entries.
