Awesome weather, awesome results

After a season of cloudy, windy, rainy and downright cold weather, the sun finally shone down on Gutheridge Field for the South Central District high school track and field meet Wednesday.
And boy did it make a difference.
"I think the weather helped a lot," said Central's Kelsey Konihowski, who won the senior girls long jump, triple jump, 200 m and 4x100 m relay.
"Today was a really nice day," said Peacock's Tye Buettner after claiming midget girls gold in the 100 m, 200 m, 400 m, and 4x100 m relay.
"I think it was the weather," said Central's Jina Barker, winner of the junior girls 100 m, 200 m and triple jump.
Maybe the sun did brighten everyone's day, but the athletes themselves also shone. Of Peacock's 18 athletes participating in the meet, 15 qualified for provincials. The top two finishers in each event advance.
But other schools also found success. Konihowski did, and when she claims she isn't that fond of track, the medals make it hard to take her seriously.
"Track's not my favourite," she said. "It's an individual sport."
That makes the relay her favourite event as it's the closest she comes to competing with a team. And as senior girls, their victory at home wasn't lost on them.
"It was our last time running on a Moose Jaw track, so we were all hugging each other afterwards," said Konihowski, who also won the aggregate score total for her age division.
Buettner, meanwhile, won't try to convince anyone she doesn't love track. The 14-year-old set personal bests in all of her events, continuing on with her highly successful season.
"I was really happy about that," she said. "We haven't had a nice day all track season, so that's a big part of it, I think."
Buettner has been training hard all season and has improved greatly, constantly trying to best her previous performance.
"Your fitness level going in (is much lower) than your fitness level coming out of track season," she said.
Other successful local athletes included Vanier's Keegan Arnyek with four gold medals, along with Danika Wolfe of Central and Lauren Haffner of Caronport, both of whom counted three gold medals.
Now the athletes who have qualified for provincials will gear up for the trip to Prince Albert.
"I'm going to do the best I can," said Konihowski. "It'll be fun being with the team, everybody's from Moose Jaw. I'm really excited."
Buettner will compete in the 200 m and 400 m up north, and is looking forward to the challenge.
"I will have some really heavy competition. The 400 is definitely the event I think I'll do the best in," she said. "I would really like to be at the final in both of them and - setting my hopes really, really high - I would like to medal in the 400. They're pretty high goals."
Hopefully the weather helps.

Taylor Lambert can be reached at 691-1260