Juggernaut wins another title

By Sean Rooney on June 5, 2018.

When Hat High won track and field provincials the first time, everyone took notice.

When they did it four years later, there was no longer doubt the first one was a fluke.

On Saturday, in Red Deer, the Mohawks repeated their 4A team title, with the bulk of their points coming from the youngest age groups.

Now you can call them a juggernaut.

“The support that we have, right at the top from the administration is unreal,” said head coach Glen Mori. “Then we have an amazing coaching staff, we all have the same philosophy that if it’s good for kids, let’s do it.

“It just builds. As the program continues to build, we’re going to have more knowledgeable people in the track community.”

Hat High racked up 661.5 points in the team standings, including seven gold, four silver and four bronze medals. Calgary’s Crescent Heights was second in 4A with 412 points.

“We’re always told we’re the small dogs in the 4A category, we have such a small chance to actually win it,” said Landon Swartz, a silver medalist in the intermediate boys 1,500 in his final high school meet. “It’s unreal how everyone’s been able to do it.

“It comes down to the coaches and the people doing it right now. It’s such a fun-loving community, so inviting that everyone feels like they want to do it and be a part of it.”

Swartz passed a Crescent Heights rival at the finish line of his race, lunging ahead to take the silver fourth thousandths of a second quicker. He found an extra gear when he saw the team he was chasing.

His was among a raft of impressive showings for Hat athletes, and not just those from the Hat High team. McCoy’s Madison Kane-Rissling won the aggregate title for senior girls, picking up 47 points on her own. She won bronze in triple jump and was fourth in high jump and fifth in long jump.

Hat High claiming the banner again was the big story, though that’s a bit of a misnomer. Mori said the 2018 banner couldn’t be found Saturday to hand over, so the Alberta Schools Athletic Association will have to mail it to them.

It didn’t change the overwhelming emotion when Hat High was announced as the champs. They got a plaque to hoist anyways.

“I feel so good to be part of the team, just to know that history is being made, it’s wonderful,” said Grade 10 high jump gold medalist Gloria Lokbai, who cleared 1.66 metres to win her division.

The thing is, that feeling could become quite familiar if Hat High keeps it up. Mori noted his coaching staff is up to 18 now, a huge reason athletes flock to the track this time of year. They pretty much had a coach for every athlete who medaled.

“I think it’s pretty crazy,” said Taya Karsten, the junior girls high jump champ. “All of a sudden coming to Hat High, I have these incredible coaches who believe in my potential, coach me daily and then we win provincials. I never thought track would become one of my favourite sports.”

Winning certainly makes it more fun. Karsten won her event late Saturday, with most of her teammates done for the weekend and cheering her on.

When she cleared 1.60 metres —the eventual winning jump —they went nuts.

“I’ll never forget that moment,” she said.

Hat High did it with raw numbers too. Almost half their team of 73 made it to Red Deer, needing top-two finishes at both city and zone meets to get there. They had medals in three relays, including gold in junior boys 4×100 from Zachary Campbell, Orin May and Lukas Herter. Cambria Rattai won silver in intellectual girls shot put. And both Kyle Spackman and Aimee Maurice won their respective junior pole vault divisions.

“It took a while to get the hang of holding a 10-foot pole in the air, but after that it was kind of easy,” said Maurice, who had less of a problem being three metres in the air thanks to her gymnastics background. She cleared 2.65 metres to win.

Other individual winners included Rhiannon Ware (silver, senior girls 80 metre hurdles), May (silver, junior boys 100 metre hurdles) and Ethan Hicks (bronze, intermediate boys 100 metre).

The biggest medal winner was Josh Suelzle, who nearly set records in winning shot put and discus and added bronze in junior boys javelin. He and a few others will now continue their track season at a big meet in Calgary in two weeks’ time which could qualify them for Legion Nationals.

“We’ve got a lot of good athletes coming up, Hat High’s known more for its athletics (now),” said Suelzle, in Grade 11. “I’ve always wanted to see if I could go somewhere with track, it would be a really good experience.”

For pretty much everyone at Hat High, that’s already the case. The only question is how much longer they can keep this streak going.

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