Porter Creek Secondary’s Scott Peterson got a rush competing for Yukon Rush at the Nike High School Grand Prix on Saturday at the University of Toronto.
“My heart is running 100 miles a second, just waiting for the gun to go off,” Peterson said in a news release. “It’s such a nice thing for Nike to sponsor this event for us. To bring kids together from all across Canada, seeing the amazing places, competing at a really high level, this is awesome.”
Peterson, who was one of 20 Whitehorse high school athletes on the Yukon Rush team, captured bronze in the 100-metre sprint at the Canada-wide invitational track meet featuring over 280 high school track-and-field athletes from across Canada.
It is the first medal won by a Yukoner at the meet in an individual event. (Two Yukon athletes won medals in relay races at the inaugural event last year.)
Peterson finished third with a time of 11.80 seconds. He finished second in the 100-metre preliminary race.
“He boggled a bit in the final and that was the difference between second and third,” Yukon coach Don White said in an interview.
“The biggest issue was the guys didn’t get a whole lot of practice, basically because of weather and some other sport commitments ... Just a lack of facilities and an ugly spring reduced the amount of training time we had.”
At last year’s Nike Grand Prix Peterson finished with sixth- and fourth-place results in sprint events.
“Last year he had a hamstring injury, so he qualified to the (100-metre) final but wasn’t able to compete in the final,” said White.
Peterson also broke the top-10 with eighth in the 400-metre at 56.03 and 10th in the long jump at 5.41 metres. He won the 100-metre dash, the 200-metre dash and the long jump for his division at the Yukon Schools’ Athletic Association Track and Field Meet last year.
F.H. Collins Secondary’s Marten Sealy was another to take in top-10 results. He placed sixth in the 400-metre at 55.62 and 10th in the 800-metre with a time of 2:13.44. Sealy placed seventh in the 400-metre at last year’s Nike event.
“I was here last year, and it was fun,” Sealy said in a release. “This year they managed to step it up a notch - it’s crazy. What they have planned for us, it’s crazy ... It was so busy the day before our races, and that really just got us pumped. They had so much in store for us.”
Yukon Rush captured a total of 19 top-20 results in Toronto.
Dominic Korn placed 11th in the boys 100-metre (12.11) and in the high jump (1.54 metres). He also took 14th in the long jump with a distance of 5.34 metres.
Camille Gallaway snagged 13th in the 1,500-metre (5:35.84) and 19th in the 200-metre (29.69).
Karter Kazkoff reached 12th in the long jump (5.40 metres) and 13th in the 100-metre (12.31).
Rachel Kinvig jumped to 13th in the high jump (1.20 metres) and raced to 20th in the 200-metre (29.72).
Sara Burke-Forsythe was 15th in the 1,500-metre with a time of 5:39.89.
Keifer Stemiah threw to 17th in the boys shot put at 9.27 metres.
Jaylene Kelly reached 12th (1.25 metres) and Ingrid Janzen 16th (1.15 metres) in the girls high jump.
“The weather was worse than last year. The weather was cool and cloudy for most of it, which caused some problems,” said White. “We had a lot more muscle strain issues than last year. And that’s the lack of experience and a lack of training on a rubber track.”
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com