Before the school disruption in October, a number of students from St. Anthony’s School in Drumheller participated in Zones in Cross Country, and ended up winning a new banner to hang in the gymnasium.
Gavin Makse, one of the coaches of the Cross Country team, shares the details. “South Central Zone Championships were on October 1st in Diamond Valley. We sent a good team of junior and senior high athletes, and we had some good results there. Sent 2 runners from senior high to provincials. There’s no provincials for junior high. We were actually competing for the first time ever at the 2A level, against bigger schools, and we won the team banner for senior high cross-country running for the South Central Zone Championships.”
The most impressive part of their success is that St. Anthony’s School does not have a track at the school, which means coaches have to be creative in their training. Makse admits Drumheller has a number of great trails for them to use. “We do have the Rails to Trails, those paths, but the problem with a lot of those is they’re paved. In past years, I’ve had to think outside the box and try to find different routes. We’ve had Veronique Ram and Leon Jarrett, my two assistant coaches and they’re avid runners. Previous years we were at the Midland Provincial Park going there, but with our senior high athletes, they’re running up to five, 6 kilometers. We had to figure out a two kilometer loop or a three kilometer loop. We’re running a little bit, in preparation, down along Riverside Drive, on the old path that is not paved, and that was really good training for our kids.”
Two senior high students, Levi Fournier, and Joseph Makse have made it to provincials, which will now be held in the spring. At the junior high level, Adam Beale finished in third, which has been the highest to date any cross country athlete has finished in the South Central Zone Championships. The Senior High Provincials were supposed to be in Bragg Creek but that has not yet been cofirmed.
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