Rowan Hamilton earned three medals at the B.C. High School Track and Field Championships.
The Sardis secondary school student scored double silver in individual events at the year-end meet, held Thursday through Sunday at Langley’s McLeod Athletic Park.
Hamilton and W.J. Mouat’s Vikramjit Gondara went head to head in a pair of senior men’s throwing events.
Both are protegees of Harold Willars, a Simon Fraser University Hall of Famer and Chilliwack Track and Field Club coach.
It came down to Gondara and Hamilton in the discus and hammer-throw, with no one else threatening.
Gondara, a year older than Hamilton, bested him in both events, but not by much.
Gondara posted a throw of 47.64 metres in the 1.75 kilogram discus. Hamilton’s mark was 46.49m while the third place finisher (Brendan Chandra from Vancouver College) lagged well behind at 41.71m.
Gondara’s victory in the six kilogram hammer-throw was slightly more decisive.
His mark was 62.43m while Hamilton came in at 59.85m.
Again, the third place finisher, Kelowna’s Nick Cornell, wasn’t in contention with a throw of 46.71m.
Chilliwack secondary’s Noah Bailey competed in both events, finishing fifth in the hammer-throw (40.40m) and 12th in discus (32.47m). GW Graham’s Jaren Lengert finished 17th in discus (28.14m).
Hamilton earned a third medal, bronze, as part of the Sardis 4x400m relay team.
Teaming with Owen Wright, Juan Eraso and Daniel James, the Falcon boys finished fourth in preliminaries with a time 3:32.04. They shaved nearly four seconds off that in the final and jumped one spot to third with a time of 2:28.63.
“I’m proud of these guys as they held onto the podium from last year even though they were seeded out of the medals going in,” said Sardis track coach Brad Geary. “And they smashed the school record by three seconds.”
Chilliwack secondary’s relay team was disqualified in preliminaries.
Wright ran in the 1500m race, bowing out with a 24th place finish in prelims (4:23.71).
l In senior girl’s competition, GW Graham’s Jaya Bannerman placed 16th in the 200m dash prelims with a time of 27.66 seconds.
GWG’s Kate Sokolowski was 26th in the 800m run prelims with a time of 2:38.02 and GWG’s Sydney Fraess was 17th in the 3000m run prelims with a time of 11:14.11.
Serenah Roy, Sardis, was ninth in the 400m hurdles prelims with a time of 1:10.54 and finished 27th in triple jump (8.98m).
Hannah Forde, Sardis, was 19th in the four kilogram shot-put with a throw of 7.45m.
Chilliwack secondary’s Morgan Miller was eighth in the one kilogram discus (30.16m) and Linda Clarke-Harter was disqualified in the 1500m race-walk.
l In the junior girl’s division, Vedder’s Renessa Margison placed 15th in the 100m dash prelims with a time of 13.69s.
Chilliwack’s Melissa Holyhead-Miles was 12th in the three kilogram hammer-throw (26.63m) and AD Rundle’s Jasmine Agudelo Williams placed 19th in the 500 gram javelin with a mark of 28.50m.
l In the junior boy’s division, Chilliwack’s Tyler Parsons finished 16th in the 100m dash prelims (12.10s) and 27th in triple jump (10.77m).
Unity Christian’s Wiltosso Neufeld and Sardis’s Juan Eraso went head to head in the 200 and 400m dashes.
Neufeld finished 12th and Eraso 13th in the 200m prelims, with times of 24.18 and 24.29s.
Neufeld qualified for the final of the 400m event, finishing sixth in prelims while Eraso placed ninth. Neufeld placed fifth in the final with a time of 51.85s.
Sardis’s Khashayar Effatparvar was 27th in the 800m prelims with a time of 2:16.50.
Sardis’s Logan MacDonald tackled three events.
He was 25th in the 1500m run prelims (4:39.56), 15th in the 3000m prelims (9:36.69) and 14th in the 1500m steeplechase final (4:52.97). Unity’s Caleb Graham was less than a finger-snap behind in the steeplechase, finishing 15th in 4:52.99. Graham was 25th in the 3000m run prelims (9:59.88).
Unity’s William Craig competed in two throwing events. He was eighth in the five kilogram shot-put (11.53m) and 28th in the 1.5kg discus (13.31m).
Unity’s Wilclair Neufeld and Vedder’s Rylan Laurillard both DQed in the 1500m race-walk.