LeBoldus and Holy Cross, no more.
Make way for the new high school provincial champion in x-country.
"It changes in any given year and it changed this year," offered Mike Haczkewicz, co-coach of the new provincials champions, the Yorkton Regional High School Raiders orange and now gold, silver and bronze, too.
LeBoldus and Holy Cross had the reputations of being tops in Saskatchewan for high school cross country athletes, explains Haczkewicz.
Not anymore.
Among the races were midget girls 3km, midget boys 4km, junior girls 4km, junior boys 5km, senior girls 4km and senior boys 6km.
Gold was the colour that Avery Westberg brought home Saturday as the Saskatchewan High Schools Athletics Association provincial cross country meet was held in the City of Regina. He said it's the first time that a school not located within the perimeter of Regina or Saskatoon has come out on top in terms of having the top athletes in the province.
The meet was quite big for the members of the YRHS team after a successful outing not long ago at the districts cross country meet, in which four students came home with gold medals around their necks. The provincial meet was even bigger, attests Haczkewicz.
"This is the first time in school history," he explained Monday afternoon during a mini-media conference at the school.
"We are provincial champions. This is huge for this school."
At the meet, held Saturday, runners Westberg, Matthijs Wenning and Brandey Blahut came home with the neck gear, placing first, second and third, respectively. Westberg competed in the senior girls' 4km run and came out on top.
"She always shows up on race day," adds coach Haczkewicz, who noted that a runner from Saskatoon appeared to be the favourite.
"She beat Avery a couple times before," explained Haczkewicz. "It was the most exciting race I've ever seen as a coach."
"It was a good race," testifies Westberg. "I was nervous," she added about competing against some of her competition, including Gabrielle Edwards and Taryan Latimer.
"I was expecting a bronze."
Westberg won her race by about 50 metres.
Wenning also had large expectations going into the championships. After having easily won the gold at the district cross country meet in Melville, Wenning placed second at provincials.
"He had a different sort of a race," explains Haczkewicz, adding that he "was in chase mode the whole way."
The coach said it would be a matter of training harder for next year's event.
He continued that the biggest surprise for YRHS was Brandon Campbell, whom Haczkewicz noted placed in ninth out of 100 runners.
"He did the work," he closed.
Later in the school year, the Yorkton Regional High School plans to hold a banner-raising ceremony in the gymnasium to celebrate the accomplishment.
