Good showing by locals at national track meet

Several local connections figured prominently in their disciplines as the 2015 National Youth Track & Field Championships that wrapped up recently in Ste-Thérèse, Quebec.

Noah LaPierre, Ryan Taylor and Joseph Maxwell all cracked the top five, or better, in the final leg of the Legion Track & Field circuit.

LaPierre, who took first place in the provincial meet with a personal best leap of two metres in the U18 Boys High Jump, could not duplicate the feat at nationals, settling for a fifth place finish with a best height of 1.90 metres.

After passing on his first three heights, the Lasalle Secondary senior and ultra-skilled basketball talent cleared both 1.75m and 1.80m on his first crack at each standard.

He survived one miss at both 1.85m and 1.90m, but made good on his second jumps, before fouling out on three attempts at 1.93 metres.

First place went to Jordon Fisher of Quebec, as both he and Joel Della Siega (BC) recorded maximum jumps of 1.99 metres.

Long-time Sudburian Ryan Taylor picked up both a silver and bronze medal at the Canadian Championships, as Ivan Nyemeck of Quebec established himself as the man to beat in the horizontal jumps.

Nyemeck shattered the meet record in the triple jump, launching himself 15.02 metres, far beyond the mark of 14.84m established back in 1992 by Adrian Woodley. Taylor took second place in his stronger event, hitting for a triple jump of 14.21 metres.

Nyemeck (7.02m) edged out Jae Evans (7.01m) of Ontario in the long jump, with Taylor in third place at 6.85 metres.

Back from his international debut in South America (World Youth Championships), Manitoulin Island native Joseph Maxwell travelled to Quebec as an "independent" competitor, opting to pass on his signature event, the shot put.

Given that he already holds the meet record at 19.52m, and that the 2015 gold medal winner (Fletcher Smith) captured the competition with a toss of 16.53m, it's a virtual certainty that Maxwell would have breezed to victory.

Instead, he focused on the discus, still winning easily. With a gold medal performance of 56.99 metres, Maxwell outdistanced second place finisher Thomas Nedow of Ontario by some eight metres (roughly 25 feet).

Maxwell did, however, fall short of breaking the meet record of 60.74 metres set in 2010 by Jordan Young, now competing for the University of Arizona Wildcats of the NCAA.