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R_Demorest

Past Articles May 2001

May 30, 2001

LAND O'LAKES NewsWeb

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R_DemorestRyan Demorest photo david brison

Ryan Demorest Leads SLHS Track Team in Regional Meets

by David Brison

Ryan Demorest, a 15 year-old Grade 9 student who has been at Sharbot Lake High School since January, placed first in the 100 metre dash in three successive regional meets, and will represent the school at the prestigious province-wide OFFSA meet in Etobicoke, May 31 to June 2.

Ryan won six straight races en route to his victory in the final of East Regional meet on May 24 in Belleville. His first place finishes are remarkable, considering that we are a small school and dont have good facilities for track, said SLHS coach Paul Allen. The first time he ever started from blocks was in his first race at the KASSA meet in Kingston. He had his fastest time in that meet (11.3), which is a school record and a very good time for a midget. Allen said that Demorest worked very hard in physical education classes and has good physical ability. His standing long jump is 9 feet he has very strong and explosive legs, said Allen.

SLHS has been very supportive of me, Ryan says. I am new here and the other guys on the team helped me a lot. I always have known that I could run fast but I didnt think that I would do this well, he continued.

Coach Allen said that Tom Murdock and Shawn Mercer, two other runners on the team, helped by staying late and working out with him. Several SLHS went on the bus to meets to cheer the team on and a student, Justin Andrews, took a video of the races.

Several other team members had multiple top place finishes at the KASSA meet in Kingston. Ken Babcock was 1st in the midget shot put, 2nd in the discus, and 2nd in the javelin. Rob Barker finished 2nd in the senior high jump, 1st in the long jump, and 2nd in the triple jump. Brad MacPherson had a 2nd in the junior high jump, 3rd in the triple jump and 3rd in the shot put. Shawn Mercer finished first in the midget discus, Tom Murdock was second in the senior 400 metres, and Brad Teal 2nd in the 300 metres intermediate hurdles.

SLHS placed 6th out of the 12 schools which participated in the KASSA meet-- a very good showing for a small school with limited facilities.

At the Eastern Ontario High school meet, Rob Barker was 3rd in the senior triple jump and had a 4th place finish in the long jump. Barker established school record in all three of his events and will graduate holding all junior and senior records in the long, high, and triple jumps.

Demorest will run into stiff competition at OFSAA where he will be up against runners who train with track clubs and compete year-round. Coach Allen hopes that Demorest will be able to run during the summer at some Legion meets and possibly at local meets in Ottawa and Kingston.

With the participation of the Government of Canada