A strong wind and rain falling throughout the day wasn't going to slow down the Moose Jaw high school track and field athletes on Thursday.
The athletes braved the unfavourable weather to post some strong times during the 2018 MJHSAA City Championship at Gutheridge Field.
On most windy days at the facility on South Hill, the wind is coming out of the west and helping the athletes, but Thursday's wind out of the east came right down the home stretch of the track and made it like a wall for the athletes to run into.
"It was very hard because you have to go with the wind and the wind reduces your power, so it was really hard," said Vanier grade 10 Rayann Cabral.
Cabral didn't let the wind slow him down as he secured a first place finish in the junior boys long jump, while also finishing in second place to Central's Kienan Kleisinger in the 100m and 200m. He also picked up another silver in triple jump, which he competed in at the same time as the 100m.
"I'm happy, I did good today," said Cabral. "I think I can still do better and I'll better next time because of the wind, I'm hoping to make all my events at provincials."
The Peacock track team won its fifth straight city championship with 1,191 points, beating Vanier by 367 points, while Central was in third, 254 points back of Vanier.
Training throughout the winter with the Moose Jaw Rotary Track Club paid off for Central senior Kal McGillis as he captured the senior boys aggregate on Thursday. McGillis won the 800, 1,500 and 3000-metre races and also picked up a third place finish in the 400m.
Peacock's Josie Gosling took the senior girls aggregate, just topping Vanier's Olivia Moyse by two points.
McGillis praised how much training this winter helped him, "It's definitely something people should do," he said. "It helped me with my strength and made me a better runner coming into the (high school) season."
McGillis added that his goal going into the meet was to win the aggregate title and he was able to do that by edging out Peacock's Tristan Kuntz by six points.
"That's what I was going for and hopefully I can get that at districts too," he said. "I've been running all season and training just for provincials, I haven't been thinking about anything else."
In the senior boys 400m, McGillis was beat by fellow Cyclone Crozier Holmes, who won both the 200 and 400-metre races on Thursday.
While it was only two events, those wins were huge for Holmes, who had to sit out most of the basketball season and track up until Thursday's meet with a pressure fracture in his foot.
"That left me out for two months or so and I've just been building up to this day," said Holmes. "I just worked really hard, my ankle was bugging me, but I just had to get through it, grinded it out and ended in a good way."
Coming back from the injury to win the two events in some cold weather was definitely a challenge for Holmes. He said he felt fine physically, but it was getting past some mental hurdles early on in the day.
"Once you get that confidence in your mind than you can do what you really do what you want to do and if you're not confident than it's not going to go well for you, so I just had to get that in my mind and from there it was good," he said.
"My main goal coming into today was just to qualify (for districts) and give myself a chance to get better for one more week."
The top finishers throughout the day are now moving onto the South Central District Championship, which will be held on Wednesday at Gutheridge Field.
City Championship Results:
Fri, Apr 19, 8:00 AM
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