HUMBOLDT — Humboldt Collegiate students Kody McGinn, Jay Eichorst and Zach Holaday returned last week from Moose Jaw’s provincial track and field championships with hardware around their necks.
McGinn took gold in the senior boys’ 100 metre hurdles and silver in the long jump, while Eichorst took a silver medal in the senior boys’ triple jump. Holaday earned a silver medal as a member of Horizon Central’s midget boys’ relay team.
Attending the provincial track championship “was just surreal” for Eichorst.
“Putting all of the training in for a month, and committing to the team and going to provincials again was just another milestone for me and my high school athletic career,” he said.
McGinn said he was excited to go out there, “and hopefully do what I did.” That being earning a gold hurdles medal for the second year in a row, despite a hip injury that put him in jeopardy of scratching the event as late as three days before the championship, according to HCI track and field coach Shaun Gardiner.
McGinn said he was nervous after underestimating his competition leading up to the final.
“I get there, everyone’s the same height as me, almost the exact same body build,” he said. “I was like 'oh gosh, this is gonna be rough.'”
He said the race, like all others, required constant focus after launching from the starting blocks.
“There’s a certain amount of steps [to] maintain your speed to go over the first hurdle. Then you have to keep it going, keep it going, keep it going.”
Gardiner said McGinn won “by probably a metre and a half or so”, which was “very impressive” given his previous injury (McGinn finished 50 miliseconds ahead of second place). McGinn’s bounding power makes him a “very natural athlete” for hurdles, Gardiner said.
Eichorst said the goal of practising after nearly every school night in the month of May was to “perfect every event that we compete in, go to provincials and make our school and community proud.”
The day of the championship gave him perfect weather for jumping, Eichorst said.
“The wind was at our backs, so it was giving us a little bit of a push in the air. [The landing pits] were nice and soft for landings, and the rubber was in well-maintained condition.”
Gardiner said Eichorst “really uncorked a big jump” where everything came together, landing him in second place. At 6’4, Eirchorst said his primary sport is volleyball, an experience that Gardiner said helped him out.
“I think helped his explosiveness for the triple jump.”
Holaday had placed third in the midget 200 metre preliminary events, but performed so well he was chosen to join Horizon Central’s 100 metre relay team, where they earned silver. Gardiner called him a “fit, hardworking, strong athlete,” whose speed consistency puts dashing events “right in his wheelhouse.”
“You just set your goals for the year, and that's all you're trying to achieve,” Eichrost said about provincials. “I achieved my goal and that made me happy, and I got a silver medal on top of it.”
