THUNDER BAY -- It was a picture perfect couple of days for what close to 1,000 Catholic students consider the highlight of their year.
Not even temperatures soaring to 27 C on Day 2 of the annual event on Wednesday could cool down Horizon Mendowegan, a Grade 7 student at Bishop E.Q. Jennings School, who scorched her competition throughout the day.
“I felt good,” Mendowegan said following a handily defeat in the 800-metre bantam girls’ final.
Mendowegan also won the 800-metre event, and provided the final 100 metres for her school’s victory in the four-by-100 metre relay.
In total, she provided 26 individual points for her school over the course of two days, the second-most out of any female bantam athlete.
In the senior elementary division, Bishop E.Q Jennings won the day racking up 370 combined points. Bishop Gallagher placed second with 322 points, while the two Pope John Paul teams placed third and fourth respectively.
Mendowegan, like other students, say they look forward to the day every year. “This is my favourite thing we do with the school,” she said.
“For a lot of them it’s the pinnacle of their year,” track and field convener Grant Lilley said. “It’s all about getting the kids out, getting them interested in loving sports.”
“I find it gets all my stresses away,” Mendowegan said. “I have good endurance so I do long-distance events.”
Konner Prevost loves to run at a shorter distance, but he also says the experience, and the winning, is rewarding.
“It’s so fun coming out here every year,” the eighth-grader from Pope John Paul II Secondary School said.
Prevost collected 28 points for his school, the most among Grade 8 boys, and took home gold in both the 100- and 200-metre dash.
“You got to love what you do... and I love to run.”
In the elementary school standings, St. Bernard’s maroon squad picked up a city-best 111 points, and set some records along the way.
The team’s four-by-100 metre girls’ relay team set a new city record with a time of 59.07 seconds. Sarah Kiiskila and Matteo Bosch -- both from St. Bernard -- set new records in the 1,200-metre race in their respective divisions.
