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Thurber sweeps team track titles

Ben Pasiuk competes in track and field to be active and stay in shape for football season.But when the Lindsay Thurber athlete competes he does so to have success as well.“Football is my sport, but I play basketball and track to stay fit and train,” he said during the Central Alberta High School area track and field meet at LTCHS Wednesday.
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Photo by JEFF STOKOE/Advocate staff-Red Deer Track Meet - for sports-From the left

Ben Pasiuk competes in track and field to be active and stay in shape for football season.

But when the Lindsay Thurber athlete competes he does so to have success as well.

“Football is my sport, but I play basketball and track to stay fit and train,” he said during the Central Alberta High School area track and field meet at LTCHS Wednesday.

“But no matter what I’m in I try to do the best I can.”

And his best Wednesday was first place in the junior javelin and second in the 100-metres and discus. He was also on the junior boys’ relay team, which won their division.

“It was a good day,” he said. “I usually compete in the 100 and 200, but today I went with the 100 and threw the javelin and discus, just because.”

He won the javelin with a toss of 38.84-metres and was second in the 100 to Carson West of Hunting Hills, who finished at 11.18 seconds. Pasiuk was at 11.65 and finished with a 32.54m toss in discus, back of teammate Jeremiah Huo (37.38m).

Pasiuk will compete in the zone championships next Wednesday at LTCHS, and possibly at the provincials — June 6-7 in Calgary — then turn his attention back to football. He made Team Alberta to compete in the Canada Cup U18 championships in Saskatoon in early July.

“It was a big relief to see my name on the list,” he said. “It was a lot of work and I’m certainly happy to make the team. I owe a lot to the coaching of Chris Hall with the (midget) Prairie Fire and Dave Smith of Thurber. They did such a good job with their programs and always had my back and my teammates were at such a high level.”

Making the provincial team as a 16-year-old is a nice feather in the cap and a good way to spend the summer after the Prairie Fire season, which saw them lose 36-34 to the top-ranked Calgary Colts in the Calgary League quarter-finals, and a disappointing finish to last year’s high school season.

Pasiuk suffered a high ankle sprain midway through the high school season, which kept him out for the rest of the season.

“The injury was misdiagnosed early on and in the end I was in a boot for a couple of weeks and then shut it down,” he explained. “So it was nice to be able to tack on to the high school season. It wasn’t planned that way, but it’s nice to get to play and it’s always nice to play at the highest level.”

Pasiuk, who is listed at slot back, is one of three Central Albertans on the Alberta team, joining LTCHS teammate and defensive back Owen Smith and Sylvan Lake running back Landon Rosene.

He has played quarterback and running back in minor football, and even high school, but sees himself as a receiver.

“I tried out for slot back and lucky to make it,” he said. “The camp went well and I had some balls thrown to me to show what I could do.

“It’s also nice to have Owen and Landon on the team. I’ve played a lot of football with Owen growing up and I’ve played against Landon a lot. It makes it easier to know some guys for sure.”

The provincial team will train in Red Deer and Lacombe on June 13-15.

Pasiuk still has two years of high school ahead of him which he hopes leads him to a university scholarship.

“I’m hoping for it,” he said. “It it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out. I’d love to continue my education on at the university level and if I’m playing football it makes it that much better.”

Pasiuk finished fourth in the junior boys’ aggregate with 23 points. LTCHS teammates Robert Chauvet was first and Ben Holmes second with 27 and 25 points respectively.

Brayden Posyluzny of Notre Dame won the intermediate title with 36 points with Noah Mulzet of LTCHS second with 27. The senior aggregate went to Clayton Wong of LTCHS with 34 points while Aiden Smaill of H.J. Cody in Sylvan Lake had 26.

Kelsey Lalor of LTCHS won the junior girls’ title with 34 points, 10 ahead of teammate Kaylee Domoney, while Mackenzie Ramsell of Notre Dame took top spot in the intermediate girls with 27 points while Halley Flexhaug of Delburne had 25.

The senior girls’ title went to Cassandra Vlemming of LTCHS with 29 points, three ahead of Katlynn Kyle of Notre Dame.

LTCHS won all the team titles. They had 494.5 points in the boys’ division, 374.5 in the girls and 869 overall.

Notre Dame was second on the boys’ side with 195 points and Hunting Hills had 233 in the girls’ division.

Overall Hunting Hills had 367.5 points with Notre Dame at 367.

The top two athletes in each event advance to the zone playoffs.