LAKELAND - The Lakeland Schools Athletic Association (LSAA) mountain biking event took place on Sept. 28 in Cold Lake, drawing over 250 young athletes from across the region.
“It's a fun and athletic opportunity to offer and give kids a new way to be active,” said LSAA president Dustin Blake, who manned the starting gun for all of the heats in the event.
The event consisted of four heats - high school and senior males, high school and senior females, intermediate males, intermediate females, junior males, and junior females.
The senior boy’s category was won by École Voyageur’s Nicholas Howrish, with a time of 14:05. Second place was secured by Linden Poirier from Assumption High School with a time of 14:24, and Cruz Harris, also from Assumption, came in third clocking a time of 15:17.
Ava Vallee from Bonnyville Centralized High School won the senior girl’s category with a time of 16:27, followed by fellow BCHS athlete Ashley Tkatchuk in second with 20:11. Behind them, Gabrielle Gratton from École des Beaux Lacs, finished third in 29:05.
Rowan Childs from Assumption was the victor in the intermediate boy’s group, with his time of 9:58. Following him was Cash Caouette from H.E. Bourgoin Middle School with a time of 10:02, and in third was Emmett Brosseau from École des Beaux Lacs with a time of 10:43.
Cecelia Vardy from École Voyageur clocked a time of 11:34 in her intermediate girl’s win. Keria Kowalchuk from Cold Lake Junior High finished in 13:05 for second place, followed by Hannah Pelchat from École Des Beaux Lacs in 13:22 for third.
Ryder Nowasad from Aurora Thunder timed in at 11:11 for his first place ribbon in the boy’s junior category. Steven Martyniuk from Assumption finished just inches away in second with a close time of 11:12 for a tight battle. Weston Girard from Dr. Bernard Brosseau School finished in third with a time of 11:50.
On the girl’s side, Lilly Bakker from École Beauséjour came in first with her stellar time of 11:33. She was followed by Allison Millie from Assumption who recorded a time of 12:42, and Lauren Wurzer from École Des Beaux Lacs who finished in 13:25.
24 years strong
Paul Bourgoin, a founder of the bike race, was happy with the turnout for the event - a large contrast from when it started 24 years ago. The race dates back to 1999, according to Bourgoin, when about 20 bikers participated in the race.
Bourgoin explains, “I was an avid mountain biker in the day. Now, this is our 24th year, so next year will be the 25th anniversary of this race. I mean, we started with 20 and this year was 277."
Bourgoin says he is looking forward to next year’s milestone
“Hopefully next year we can get to that 300 mark - some more registrations for the 25th anniversary. It started small and sort of kept growing with the association, in the years it got adopted by the Lakeland Schools Athletic Association constitution and became an official LSAA race... It's been 24 years, and it's still going, so it's good.”