Track and field is moving up the latter as one of the strongest sports in the school at Yorkton's Sacred Heart.
Last time out at provincials, SHHS sent 14 young, well-conditioned athletes to compete at the highest level in Saskatchewan.
This year, they did way better than that.
Rachel Sterzuk, who has been helping to whip a bunch of them into shape as a member of the coaching staff at SHHS, said the school just keeps getting better, and the end of it is nowhere in sight.
Some of the most talented runners are as young as Gr. 10.
"Sacred Heart had a very successful provincial track and field meet this past weekend," she explained via email to YTW.
"Leading the way with a new banner for the school gym was Preston Liebrecht," she continued.
Liebrecht, who's only been in high school for two years has won almost everything in the Sacred Heart sports world.
He added to his medallion collection with a gold in high jump, bronze in the 100m, silver in the 200m and a bronze medal in the 4x100-metre relay.
"This was a really good year," she added, but not just for the Gr. 10 whiz kid.
Brooke Mentanko won a bronze medal with a great race in the 3000-metre.
Kyle Rusnak won a silver medal in the 4 x 100-metre and Morgan Giroux wona bronzemedal in the 4 x 100-metre relay.
The following Sacred Heart athletes had top-eight finishes in their events: Skyler German placed fifth in high jump, Tierney Howe placed sixth in shot put, Bailey Inglis placed eighth in shot put, Jeremy Johnson placed seventh in pole vault, Alex Appel placed fourth in pole vault, Olivia Blenner-Hassett placed sixth in the 400-metre, fourth in the 4x100-metre relay and sixth in the 4x400-metre relay, Kylie Chupa placed sixth in the 100-metre, eighth in the 200-metre, fourth in pole vault, fourth in the 4x100-metre relay as well as sixth in the 4x400-metre relay, Emily Kruger placed sixth in pole vault and Brooke Mentanko placed fifth in the 1500m.
"The kids trained hard for this," Sterzuk acknowledged. 'There's a lot of pressure on high school athletes.
For more on the Sacred Heart runners, see next week's Yorkton This Week sports section.
