MOOSEJAWTODAY.COM -- It isn’t often you see a track and field record older than most of the people in the park get taken down, but that was the case on Wednesday afternoon at the Moose Jaw High Schools Athletic Association track and field championship at Gutheridge Field.
Peacock distance running specialist Nikolina Kapvoic broke a 49-year-old record in the senior girls' 1,500 metres, running a time of 4:45.24 to get past the mark of 4:51.10 set in 1975 by Deb Noble.
“It was a really good race, we went out hard and just tried to keep the pace up,” Kapovic said of her record-setting run. “It’s pretty tough, you have to keep mentally strong and just keep pushing hard.”
It was the second record of the meet for Kapovic, who a day earlier also ran a 10:26.18 to obliterate the senior girls 3,000 metres mark of 10:49.38 set by Kailey Smith back in 2004.
There was a common theme to both races, though, and that was Kapovic having an equally as strong fellow competitor helping set the pace.
That would be reigning junior girls SHSAA provincial gold medalist Katie Rogers from Central, who edged Kapovic for gold in both distances at provincials last season but came up short in the two record-setting runs. That included just missing out on the sprint to the finish and ending up .03 seconds back in the 1,500 as well as landing two seconds behind Kapovic in a sprint to the finish in the 3,000.
The duo will undoubtedly lock horns again in the district championship this coming Wednesday and again in provincials in two weeks time.
“Hopefully I can have another shot at gold,” Kapovic said. “There is a bit of pressure, but that’s part of the experience. I’ll just keep focusing on training and do the best I can do and hopefully that means a medal.”
While Kapovic and Rogers were there to push each other to new heights, Cornerstone’s Ademide Adewumi was on an island of her own in the junior girls shot put and discus, turning in utterly commanding performances to set new marks in each event.
Of course, given her pedigree, having that happen was almost a given -- Adewumi is the provincial record holder in the U16 shot put and the reigning Canadian Legion championship bronze medalist in the event.
Adewumi started her day with a throw of 11.58 metres in the shot to best the mark of 9.95 metres set by Megan Reid in 1999 and tied by McKenna Ehman in 2011. A couple of hours later, her 34.39-metre effort broke Reid’s record of 30.15 metres, also set in 1999.
Central’s Blake Maltais also took down a record far older than herself, and in style at that. The junior girls competitor became the first Moose Jaw athlete in the age group to clear five metres, doing so on each of her four jumps on the day. All told, Maltais would have a best of 5.12 metres, breaking the old mark of 4.99 metres set by Stella Dellabough in 1988.
Things were a little closer in the triple jump for Maltais, but her jump to 10.79 metres would break the mark of 10.71 metres set by Barb Wright in 1972 -- another record almost as old as some grandparents at Gutheridge Field that afternoon..
Vanier’s Zayden Anderson picked up where he left off last season in the junior boys 100-metre hurdles, crossing the line in 13.81 seconds to break the mark of 14.24 seconds set by M. Darroch in 1988. It’s the second year in a row Anderson has set a record in the event after running 14.15 to set the intermediate boys mark last spring.
Winning the overall individual titles in each division were Peacock’s Cambria Stuehler in intermediate girls, Central’s Reid Weiss in intermediate boys, Maltais in junior girls, Anderson in junior boys, Vanier’s Ava Kindiak and Kapovic in senior girls and Central’s Mason Muchowski in senior boys.
Central won the overall team title with 931 points, Peacock landed second with 703 and Vanier third with 570.
Next up is the South Central district championship running all day Wednesday, May 29 at Gutheridge Field, with the 3,000-metre races taking place on Tuesday. The top competitors there will advance to SHSAA provincials in Saskatoon during the June 7 weekend.
