Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. The Whistler Secondary mountain bike team fell just short of the top spot at the BC School Sports High School Mountain Biking Provincial Championships on May 27, finishing second for the fifth year running.
Even though they once again found themselves as the runners-up, head coach Lesley Clements said the students showed great team spirit and will be back next year looking to finally grab that top spot.
“We just need to have a few more athletes attend provincials, as our students always do really well, we just need more to come,” said Clements. “With next year’s provincials being held in Castlegar, we’ll need a large contingent to go, and I think we can do it. We had over 60 kids on our school mountain bike team and about 13 coaches, so our program is really amazing.”
The Whistler Storm team competing at provincials consisted of 11 students total—six in Grade 8, two in Grade 9, two in Grade 10 and one in Grade 11.
Leading the way for the team were Grade 10 students Braden Aitken and Vanessa Young, who each finished fourth in cross-country. Aitken added a second-place finish in men’s enduro, while Young took another fourth-place in women’s enduro.
Other top performers included: Grade 9 student Mhairi Smart, who finished fourth in cross-country and second in enduro; Thomas Legg, also in Grade 9, who finished seventh in cross-country; And Grade 8 student Maika Lennox-King with fourth- and third-place finishes in cross-country and enduro, respectively.
The team from Pemberton Secondary took first.
