On Thursday and Friday, ESA’s track and field participated in the west regional championships at Centennial Park, trying build upon last year’s amazing results. This year’s ESA team has proven to be even more impressive than last year. The school finished second only to Richview in overall points, and won BOTH the junior and senior girls points titles. Our amazing athletes picked up 16 gold medals, 9 silver medals, and 9 bronze medals, and have a total of 26 athletes who have advanced to the Metro Regional Championships on Wednesday and Thursday at Birchmount Stadium. Additionally, 12 school records were set during this one meet!
The gold medal winners were Matias Bessai in the 800 and 1,500; Santi Bessai in the 1,500, 3,000, and steeplechase (setting two school records); Chiara Ferrero-Wong in the 80 metre hurdles; Katrina Hubler in the high jump; Kristen Metcalfe in the 200, 400, and 400 metre hurdles (setting three school records); Hale Murphy in the shot put and discus (both school records); Quinn Spurrell in the high jump (a school record); Carly Turner in the 3,000; Phoebe Wolfe in the long jump; and the senior girls 4 x 100 metre relay team of Katrina Hubler, Kristen Metcalfe, Hailey Radigan, and Emma Cullen Shaw (that was a school record as well). Notably, Julia Jairath placed second in all three of her events – giving the team a crucial 24 points.
That, of course, was not all! We actually fielded two 4 x 400 metre relay teams featuring Katrina Hubler, Hailey Radigan, Emma Cullen Shaw and Phoebe Wolfe who finished second, and the boys team placed fourth (and advanced) in a very competitive race thanks to the Bessai brothers, Ian Hogeboom-Burr, and a huge run from Adam Finkelman.
One huge throw by Andrew Young saw him advance in the brutally difficult senior boys javelin. Ned Carolan broke his own school record to advance in the triple jump. Jade O’Hara endured the terrifying prospect of her first-ever 400 metre race by placing fourth and advancing. Olena Leshchyshen’s two third-place finishes in the 800 and 3,000 got the team a huge 12 points and show her great improvement. Emma Cullen Shaw scraped through in fourth place in the 200, bettering her Grade 9 time by 3 seconds (when she last ran the race).
Adam Finkelman miraculously qualified in the 200, edging his opponent by a hundredth of a second! Shantall Permaul leapt her way into second place in the triple jump with a huge last jump – beating out teammate Emily Michetti-Wilson. Sienna Csunyoscka grabbed fourth place in the 80 metre hurdles, and ran the first leg of the junior girls’ bronze medal relay team with Caroline Biel, Chiara Ferrero-Wong, and Phoebe Wolfe. Paige Court maintained her status as one of the great throwers in the west region with medals in the shot put, discus and javelin and has a decent shot at making it to OFSAA in the discus next week. Christian Filan almost fell in the 100 metre hurdles but stayed on his feet and advanced in fourth place, and placed a very good second place in the 400 metre dash. Rachel Krueger qualified in the 1,500, but couldn’t repeat her victory from last year in the 800, settling for second place.
This meet has further verified ESA’s excellence in athletics and we hope to send even more of our runners to OFSAA track and field – one of the toughest accomplishments for any high school athlete. Way to go Eagles!
For full results, go to www.trackdatabase.com.
-Michael Colbert