Local long distance runner Avery Westberg recently captured the gold for the fifth time this season with her win in the junior women's class at the age class provincials with a time of 18:00.2 in Saskatoon. The annual cross country event has runners competing with track clubs rather than as representatives of schools. Westberg ran as a member of the Yorkton Legion Track Club along with teammates Matthijs Wenning and Brandey Blahut.
The Yorkton Regional High School (YRHS) senior previously claimed the senior girls' class provincial high school title to advance to the event.
Competing against about 12 runners in her age group, Westberg says her strongest opponents were Gabriel Edwards and another girl from Regina. The three took the lead at the start with Westberg falling behind the two early in the race. As in her previous race, she caught up to the front runners at the hill, passing the Regina runner to run with Edwards. With about 1,000 metres left in the race, Westberg started her finishing sprint, winning the race by a wider margin that her previous race at high school provincials.
She admits it wasn't easy to ignore the pain in that last 1,000 kick but says, "I kind of turned the 'hurt' off, I guess."
Westberg says she was focused on winning the funding for her trip to the nationals. "I knew it would help out. I'd feel better that I got the trip for myself," she says.
In addition to claiming the gold medal, Saskatchewan Athletics will provide funding for her national level run in Guelph. As well, Westberg was invited to join the University of Regina (U of R) cross country team to compete with the team in Calgary by team coach Graham McMaster. She will accompany the U of R team to Guelph.
By the time she completes her race at the national meet, Westberg will have run nine cross country races this season which began in September.
She started slowly, quite unhappy with her first two races of the season. "Those were the first races of the season and I wasn't doing very good at all. I was kind of in the dumps when the season started, but then it just got better," she recalls. Westberg went on to win her next five consecutive races to put together an impressive five gold medal performance leading up to nationals. "I was happy to end off like this," she comments.
At this point Westberg, is leaning toward joining the U of R team. She gets along well with the coach and adds, "I really want to help build up the girls' team because it's not as strong as it could be. I really think I could contribute to that," she closes.
Westberg's teammates, Wenning and Blahut also captured medals at the age class provincials race meet. Wenning won a silver medal in the junior men's division with a time of 28:18.6 while Blahut won a bronze medal in the midget girls' class with her time of 11:41.8.
