Ruby Nicholas finished her gem of a cross-country season with an unprecedented seventh place finish in the Junior Girls category at the provincial championships in Nanaimo on Nov. 3.
The long distance runner from Quesnel Junior School finished her race in a time of 16:17, besting 232 other competitors and realizing a goal to finish top 10 at the race.
“I’m pretty sure it’s the best-ever [result] for a Quesnel Junior Girl,” says coach Scott Trueman, who sees a bright future for the young athlete. “I think she’s a medal contender for next year as well.”
Nicholas, who also plays soccer at a competitive level, took part in a training camp right after the race.
“I’m really happy that I improved so much in provincials from last year to this year,” she wrote in an email from the camp, “and I’m surprised but happy I did so well.”
Megan Strand, representing Correlieu Secondary School, finished 56th in the same race. Trueman says the placing is misleading, considering how many competitors are involved in the race.
“I mean, 56 sounds like a way back, but in many sports you don’t have the numbers that cross-country does. If you look at the time, she’s still right up there.”
He says he has reason to believe Strand will excel when she moves up a class next year.
“I think given her endurance base, she can do really well as a senior next year. They move up to a longer distance and I think Megan will adjust to that pretty well.”
Trueman says the year as a whole was a good building one for the team.
“There was definitely a lot of interest, especially among the boys,” he says. “We had great team camaraderie and a lot of students had personal bests regardless of their placing.
“The boys did really well at the zone level,” he adds. “But it is a whole different league when you go to Provincials. It’s an eye opener as to how competitive those athletes are.”
Trueman says he has been trying to get across to his team that they cannot condition themselves in two months during the fall season and hope for top results.
“You look at kids like Ruby and Megan and even a couple boys like Judah Klassen and Caleb Woollends; they train through the summer. They’re involved in track or soccer,” he says.
“We’re up against these kids who train almost exclusively for track and cross-country year round, so it’s not a level playing field. The big lesson for them is, there’s another notch at Provincials and if you really want to be in a position like Ruby, then you have to train in advance of the season.”
Trueman also sang the praises of Carrilee Drew, who acted as assistant coach this year.
“It was great as she did a lot of the conditioning workouts with the kids throughout the season.”
READ MORE: Quesnel Cross country runners are in the zone
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