KITCHENER — Ben Flanagan could feel the push coming.
He braced for it and pushed right back.
The St. Mary’s runner held off a charge by Elmira’s Matt Bannon to finish in first place on Wednesday in the midget boys 1,500-metre run. The entertaining race was one of many exciting happenings on the opening day of competition at the Central Western Ontario track and field championship at Resurrection Catholic Secondary School.
“I’ve been racing with Ben since Grade 6 I think and he’s always been killing me so this year I’ve been trying to do my best to catch up with him,” said the diminutive Flanagan.
“I was definitely looking to win today.”
Flanagan and Bannon helped each other set records at last week’s combined Waterloo County-District 8 meet. Running in the 3,000-metre race, the two took turns leading the race until Flanagan put on a late burst for the win. Flanagan set a D8 record in the process, while Bannon beat the WCSSAA record. They both also set records over 1,500 metres and Flanagan set a record in the 2,000-metre steeplechase, an event he isn’t running at CWOSSA.
Both competitors earned a spot at next week’s Ontario West regional championship in Windsor, so Bannon wasn’t too broken up by the second-place finish.
“I was thinking about kicking on the far corner against Ben, but he pushed again and I thought it was a lost battle, so I just finished the race pretty much,” said Bannon of the move he aborted with about 200 metres to go.
Flanagan finished in a time of 4:22.72, while Bannon crossed in 4:23.89.
The two will square off again on Thursday in the 3,000-metre run.
Flanagan wasn’t the only member of the St. Mary’s Eagles to turn in a solid result. In fact, he wasn’t the only Flanagan to soar for the Eagles. Older sister Kristen qualified for OFSAA West in the senior girls 1,500-metre race and cousin Riley qualified in the midget boys long jump.
Of course, other Eagles made their mark, including Jaimie Phelan, who dominated the midget girls 1,500-metre race in a time of 4:39.66. Her nearest rival finished 21 seconds back.
“It’s not even a competition for her yet,” said Flanagan.
Calvin Arsenault of St. Mary’s blew away a strong field to take top spot in the senior boys 110-metre hurdles in a time of 14.42 seconds. Waterloo-Oxford’s Trevor Zister was second in 15.08, while Rez’s Marvin Muschette was third in 15.17.
It was a statement result for Arsenault, a Grade 11 student who competed at OFSAA last year as a high jumper, but dropped that event in favour of the sprint hurdles this past winter. He ran the long hurdles in 2009.
“I’m definitely surprised. I wasn’t enjoying (high jump) that much and hurdles were going really well so I just made the switch and it’s been working out.”
The hurdles provided much of the excitement, with a big shot of it coming from the junior boys 100-metre event.
Mitch O’Donnell of Forest Heights pulled the unlikely double of setting a long-standing CWOSSA record and finishing second. O’Donnell broke the 1993 mark of Galt’s Granville Riley in a qualifying run but hit a hurdle in the final, stumbled badly and finished behind Chris Green of Cameron Heights.
O’Donnell was well on his way to an easy win when he stumbled on the fourth-to-last hurdle. His morning time of 13.95 seconds beat Riley’s record of 14.00. Green won the final in 14.23.
It was also a thriller in the midget boys race as Aaron Stemmler of St. David edged Jordan Sherwood of Cameron Heights by .01 seconds.
The two-day event wraps up on Thursday.
Retrieved From: http://news.therecord.com/Sports/article/714402
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