Under a cloudy sky and a temperature of four Celsius, 84 runners took to the trails at the Nechako Valley Sporting Association on Saturday.
It was race number three in the high school X-country series. NVSS was hosting the event and coaches Sarah Bar, Wanda and Brian Nemethy were very pleased with the way it all turned out.
Their son Alexander, Grade 9, was first overall running the 6.3 kilometre distance in 22 minutes, 59 seconds.
“He pushed hard on the hills and got away from the pack early in the race”, said Brian.
“We have been doing hill training twice a week and the runners are getting stronger every day”.
On the girl’s side, Cierra Verduzco placed second overall. The Grade 10 runner came out in front of teammate Hilary Desmarais, Grade 12.
“Hilary is very strong and consisent so for Cierra to out race her to the line just shows what Cierra has in her,” said Brian.
Last year at provincals, Hilary was 24th and Cierra was 41st” he added.
As for the girl’s team, all 26 of them will need to step it up a notch further to show the others teams that they are the champions they are.
For the past two years, they have won the zone championships and they will have to work even harder this year to do it again.
The boys team is made up of 15 runners this year and are doing well; they are pushing the bar higher with three boy’s in the top ten and two of them trying to win the boys title.
They want to bring home their first team championship since 1986. Last year they were second.
The next race is on October 16 in Prince George at DP Todd.