Golden day at provincials

As the Saskatchewan High Schools Athletic Association provincial track and field meet wrapped up Saturday, the athletes of South Central district headed out of Prince Albert in their buses and cars, bringing with them their hard-earned hardware.
With a total of 18 medals - 15 of them compliments of Moose Jaw athletes - the coaches and students had every right to be proud.
"On Saturday, we had a lot of good performances again," said Vanier coach Lianne Meili.
Vanier led the way for individual-event medals with six - four of them from track star Keegan Arnyek.
"He had a really good day on Saturday," said Meili. "He had a fantastic weekend. What he did on Friday and Saturday doesn't happen very often."
The Grade 9 student picked up two gold medals, one in the midget boys 100 m, the other in the 200 m. A silver in triple jump and a bronze in long jump rounded out a spectacular showing for Arnyek. He won the aggregate scoring for the midget boys category, which was the only South Central appearance in the top eight of any age grouping. Not only that, but his 34 points were the highest of any other competitor of the entire event. The next closest score was 30.
Arnyek, as usual, was humble about his accomplishments.
"I did good again," he said. "I thought it was really cool, because all the athletes there are really good. I thought it was really cool that I got 34 points, and that was more than all the other midgets."
Though dominant all weekend, the 200 m race proved a close call for the Vanier student, as he found another athlete right on his tail.
"He was right beside me," said Arnyek. "In the last 10 metres, I noticed him right beside me and it made me turn into another gear."
As the final runner in the 4x100m relay, Arnyek found himself with a great deal of space between him and the frontrunners.
"When I got it at the end, I had a big gap to close," he said. "I got there right behind the third place guy."
Meili had high praise for Arnyek's performance on the weekend.
"He gave it all at the end of that relay," said the coach. "He really tried to pull them into medal contention, but he was just shy. He made up a lot of ground."
The only other gold medal for the district was also thanks to a local athlete, as Cornerstone's Jessica Lariviere was tops in the junior girls high jump. But the medal may have paled in comparison to another aspect of the accomplishment.
"I was happy, I beat Chloe Heatherington," said Lariviere, referring to the Prince Albert St. Mary student to whom she has been runner-up many times. "I'm really surprised that I won in high jump, because usually she's unbeatable."
Lariviere was the only Cornerstone athlete attending, but she made the most of her appearance, picking up silv er in triple jump (Heatherington beat her by 1.63 m).
The only other Moose Jaw athlete to win multiple medals was Peacock's Regan Silversides, who picked up two bronzes for the junior boys 1500 m and 3000 m.

Taylor Lambert can be reached at 691-1260