Panthers display their prowess
Alex Rubner makes waves in the 50m butterfly at the Okanagan summer regionals in August.File photos by Ian Webster
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A trio of Merritt Secondary School athletes will be showcasing their talents this weekend and in the weeks to come.
On Saturday, seventeen-year-old Kurt Behnsen will be competing in the B.C. high school cross-country championships at Crescent Beach Park in White Rock. Behnsen, who trains with the Kamloops Track and Field Club and is coached by former national team runner Bruno Mazzato, earned a trip to the provincials by placing fourth at the Okanagan championships, held on a snow-covered course in Princeton on October 27. He also placed seventeenth in the juvenile division at the B.C. club championships held in Richmond this past weekend.
The local Merritt athlete uses his cross-country running as base training for competitive cross-country skiing in the winter. Behnsen is a member of the Telemark ski team based out of Westbank, just outside of Kelowna.
Meanwhile, sixteen-year-old Alex Rubner has her sights firmly set on the B.C. high school swimming provincials, scheduled for Richmond on the November 20-1 weekend. The Merritt Otters swim club member will be competing in the 50m butterfly and breaststroke events, and the 100m freestyle. Rubner qualified for provincials with a strong showing at the Okanagan regional competition, held at the Canada Games Pool in Kamloops on October 24.
MSS grade 12 student David Gradinaru, a member of the senior boys’ soccer team for the last two seasons, is hugely excited about his prospects in the sport for the future. The articulate 17-year-old student has been selected to an elite U-18 Kamloops soccer team that will train and compete indoors for the remainder of this fall and into the winter, before beginning regional league play starting in the spring.
Gradinaru will travel to Kamloops three times a week for practices and games. The Merritt youth soccer product hopes that the U-18 experience will be a stepping stone to making the Thompson Rivers University varsity team when he begins his studies there next September.
Turning to MSS team sports, the junior girls’ volleyball team, coached by Shelly Moorhead, will be commencing their play-offs this Thursday with games in Kamloops. Meanwhile, the senior girls’ volleyball team, coached by Dwayne Suzuki, is set to commence post-season play on November 10 and 12 in Kamloops, with hopes of making the Okanagan championships on the November 20-21 weekend.
To support their many sports initiatives, MSS athletes are fundraising by selling ‘entertainment books’ for $30 apiece. Inside each book are over $15,000 worth of coupons to various eating, sporting and retail establishments throughout the Thompson-Okanagan and Lower Mainland regions. The coupons can be redeemed right through until November of 2010, with $10 from every entertainment book sold going directly to the Merritt Secondary School’s athletic department to help with sports programs.
Anyone interested in purchasing one or more entertainment books can contact either a MSS varsity athlete directly, or athletic director Dwayne Suzuki. They can also drop by the MSS main office during regular school hours.
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