St. Mary's Morgan Burns will compete at provincials this year. (Submitted photo/Morgan Burns)

By Nolan Kowal

On your mark

P.A. student-athletes gearing up for track provincials

Jun 6, 2024 | 11:00 AM

A handful of young athletes from St. Mary High School are set to compete at this year’s SHSAA Provincial Track & Field Championships in Saskatoon coming up this weekend.

The province’s best will compete at the Gordie Howe Track & Field Complex from June 7-8.

Grade 12 student Morgan Burns will be competing in long jump, triple jump, and pole vault, along with the 100 and 400-metre relay races. She said she’s enjoyed the camaraderie that the sport has brought her.

“I’m very excited because I’ve made so many friends along the way and it’s kind of nice to just focus on yourself but still be able to cheer for everyone else,” said Burns, who has aspirations to continue her track & field career with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies next year.

“I do this for fun and I know that’s what a lot of people do track for and I think that’s absolutely great. I think it’s a sport that everyone can try and do and be good at.”

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A couple of Grade 11 students from St. Mary will also be attending.

“I made it for pole vault which I’m like stoked about, because I’ve been going down every Wednesday to Saskatoon to practice and some of the weekends recently too,” said Grace Vedress, who will also compete in high jump.

She added that participating in provincials the past two years will help her this time around.

“I won’t be as stressed, I’ll kind of know the environment and be ready to get going,” she said.

Fellow Grade 11 student Esther Akinjobi said she wasn’t able to practice as much as she would have liked due to a hectic school year.

“I feel confident and very excited going into the weekend,” she said. “I’m just going to push my hardest and try my hardest to do the best I can.”

Akinjobi said that she’s qualified for the 100-metre and 200-metre sprints, along with long jump. She placed third in the 100-metre in his Grade 9 year before finishing fourth last year.

“So I am going to try to get that back this year,” she said.

Even with all of his provincial experience, Akinjobi admits she still gets a little nervous.

“I always get nervous whenever I go to any meet that I do. Even if it’s fun originally, just being there the nerves get you. But if you’re nervous that kind of means you care a lot about it, so it’s not a bad thing I guess,” she said.

Akinjobi said she’s unsure whether he’ll pursue track or basketball following high school, while Vedress and Burns are both competitive figure skaters.

“I would often just go practice track with some of my friends at school because it is also good training for other sports, and I just kind of fell in love with it (track) through the process,” Burns said.

Burns will have Prince Albert hockey star Stryker Zablocki with her on both relay teams at provincials.

*Please note, a previous version of this story referred to Esther Akinjobi as a male. She is in fact a female. This has been corrected.

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nolan.kowal@pattisonmedia.com