Riverside secondary’s Olivia Willett wrapped up a strong track and field season with a 15th place showing out of 252 competitors at the Canadian National Cross Country Championship in Kingston, Ont., last month.
The Grade 12 Port Coquitlam athlete ran the muddy, 4-km course in 14:40 and was part of a Team B.C. squad that took second place overall.
The course was slippery and treacherous, particularly at the start, where most of the competitors were jockeying for position. Willett managed to stay on her feet throughout the race and said she was happy not to “wipe out.”
Willett made Team B.C. after winning first place overall at a qualifying run in Nanaimo in October, when she was picked along with five other runners from the province.
Last August, Willett picked up a national medal at the Legion Track and Field Championship in Sainte Therese, Que., where she placed second in the 2000 m steeple chase with a time of 7:05.52.
In that event, she also came close to taking the podium in the 1,500 m run, finishing with a personal best time of 4:39.20, less than a second behind the bronze medalist.
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