By: Michael Bennett, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Ridgetown Independent News
Ridgetown District’s Kiki White and Carman Robinson won events at the inaugural Lambton Kent Elementary School Athletic Association track and field championship meet in Sarnia on June 17.
White won the 200 metres and the long jump in the 13-year-old girls’ age group and finished second in the 100 metres.
White’s winning 200-metre time of 28.39 seconds was .10th of a second ahead of runner-up Natalee Burk of Harwich Raleigh.
Her winning jump of 4.31 metres was two centimetres further than Nancy Williams of Chatham King George VI.
White’s time in the 100 metres of 13.85 seconds was just .05th of a second behind the winner, Rebekah Odolphy of Sarnia Bright’s Grove.
White added a third gold medal with her 4×100 teammates, Maria Brown, Makayla Jones, and Irelynn Harburn, who won the girls’ age 12-over relay in 56.53 seconds.
Robinson won the 100 metres in 13.94 seconds, a winning margin of .11th of a second over Adrian Thompson of Sarnia Errol Road in the 12-year-old boys division.
Robinson finished fifth in the long jump and 10th.
Student athletes from Thamesville Area Central and Zone Township Central Public Schools also posted victories.
Kenley Bolton, of Thamesville, won the 12-year-old girls 400 metres in 1:09.92, a full second ahead of the runner-up Josie Kelders of Plympton-Wyoming.
Bolton also finished sixth in the 800 metres.
Nahilyah Chisholm, of Zone, was the long jump winner in the 12-year-old girls with a best distance of 4.33 metres – 20 centimetres better than second-place Averie Peddie of Chatham Tecumseh.
Chisholm was also second in the 200-metre final in 29.79 seconds – half a second behind Peddie – and finished seventh in the 100-metre final.
Over 530 athletes in Grades 4 through 8 from close to 50 elementary schools participated in the first Lambton-Kent board-wide championship meet.
The top two finishers at the South Kent Conference meet in Chatham earlier in June qualified for the inaugural meet, along with the top two from the other seven conferences in Chatham-Kent and Sarnia-Lambton.
Six other Ridgetown District student-athletes had top-10 finishes.
Leah O’Rourke finished second in the 12-year-old girls triple jump at 8.82 metres, 20 centimetres shy of winner Emma McLellan of Chatham McNaughton Ave.
O’Rourke also finished eighth in the long jump.
Londyn Quick finished in fifth place in the 12-year-old girls’ 100-metre final after posting the fourth fastest time in the heats.
Quick finished ninth in the 200 metres.
Maria Brown finished fifth in the 13-year-old girls.
Bennett Campbell had a sixth-place finish in the 13-year-old boys triple jump and placed 10th in the 200 metres.
August West placed eighth in the girls’ open 1,500 metres out of 16 entries.
Ella Pennie finished 10th in the 13-year-old girls’ 400 metres.
Bianca Bedell led the Naahii Ridge athletes with a fifth-place finish in the 11-year-old girls’ long jump as she placed sixth in the 400 metres.
Naahii Ridge’s Noel White finished in a three-way tie for sixth in the 11-year-old boys long jump and placed eighth in the 400 metres.
Nine Thamesville and Zone athletes had top-10 finishes.
Payton Curran, of Zone, finished third in the 10-under girls long jump and ninth in the 100 metres.
Thamesville’s Charlotte Goodwill had a fourth-place finish in the triple jump and a fifth-place finish in the 12-year-old girls ‘ division.
Koll VanEsse, of Thamesville, finished fifth in the 11-year-old boys triple jump and ninth in the 400 metres.Rae-Lyn Weibenga, of Thamesville, was the sixth-place finisher in the 10-under girls 100-metre final.
Thamesville’s Griffin Zehr finished seventh in the long jump and ninth in the 10-under boys 200 metres.Annabelle Curtis, of Thamesville, placed seventh in the 200-metre final and ninth in the 100 metres in the 13-year-old girls.
Henry Huston, of Thamesville, was an eighth-place finisher in the 12-year-old boys triple jump.
Thamesville’s Cody Shaw finished eighth in the 13-year-old boys’ 100 metres.
Zone’s Chris Stocking finished ninth in the 11-year-old boys’ 100 metres.
Thamesville’s 12-over 4×100 relay team of Kenley Bolton, Kayla Bolton, Charlotte Goodwill and Annabelle Curtis finished fifth, 2.30 seconds behind the winning Ridgetown team.
South Kent Meet
Three Ridgetown District athletes won age-division championships at the South Kent Conference meet earlier in June in Chatham, competing against Harwich Raleigh, W.J. Baird, Merlin, Wheatley and Tilbury.
Kiki White won all three events – the 100 and 200 metres and long jump – to win the 13-year-old girls division.
Bennett Campbell won the 100 and 200 metres and triple jump to share the 13-year-old boys’ crown with Harwich Raleigh’s Logan Scade.
Sawyer Vollans was also a triple winner as he won the 800 and 1,500 metres and the short jump to claim the 12-year-old boys crown.
Carman Robinson won the 100 metres and long jump and finished second in the 200 metres as he was the runner-up to Vollans.
Naahii Ridge’s MJ Myers won the long jump, finished third in the 400 metres and fifth in the 200 metres as he was the runner-up in the nine-year-old boys overall standings.
The town’s two schools produced seven other winners at the South Kent meet.
Naahii Ridge’s Brooklyn Clark won the 9-year-old girls ball throw, and Bianca Bedell won the 11-year-old girls 400 metres.
Ridgetown had three winners in the 12-year-old girls as Londyn Quick won the 200 metres, August West won the 1,500 metres, and Lia O’Rourke finished first in the triple jump.
Ella Pennie won the 400 metres and Maria Brown the triple jump for Ridgetown in the 13-year-old girls.