Niki Oudenaarden left a lasting mark at Paul Kane High School with her third provincial record in three years in track and field.
The Grade 12 athlete ended her high school career with a new standard in the senior female javelin with a winning throw of 43.27 metres Saturday afternoon at Foote Field.
The gold medal was her eighth at the Alberta Schools' Athletic Association competition and 10th medal overall.
"It was really nice to be able to leave a little bit of a mark behind at Paul Kane," Oudenaarden said. "It's an honour to be able to have competed for them. It's a great school and they've given so much in the three years I've been there and to be able to give back, even though this is really small, was a nice little way to do it in the end."
Her second of only four throws surpassed the previous record of 42.96m, set by Alison Brown of Strathmore in 1979.
"I was hoping for a little bit farther but still, with all the chaoticness that was going on that day, I was really happy that I was able to get that throw in there," Oudenaarden said. "It was just a really awesome feeling to know that all the work with my coaches really paid off."
Oudenaarden's personal best of 49.27m at last month's Calgary Spring Challenge with the Capital City Track and Field Club surpassed the world junior standard and broke the provincial records of 48.72m in U19 and 44.72m in U18. The result earned her trips to the upcoming U19 worlds and the Olympic trials.
The Canadian junior record is 52.36m.
Oudenaarden, 18, was able to leave the Paul Kane graduation ceremonies early from the Shaw Conference Centre with diploma in hand to make the noon start time in shot put and the 1:45 p.m. javelin event.
"It was not too bad actually. I was having a lot of fun at shot put. I was seeing a lot of people I hadn't seen for a while so I really enjoyed doing shot put first. I think that's why it went really well," said Oudenaarden of her gold medal showing of 12.83m.
"But javelin was getting a little bit worrisome because my date [Calvin Irwin] showed up at the track and we were sitting looking back at each other and going, 'OK, we have this much time until we miss the limo, and we have this much [to get to the 5 p.m. banquet],' but it was still really fun and I was really glad I was able to do it."
Last year Oudenaarden established an intermediate javelin record at 42.87m and in Grade 10 she won the junior long jump with a record-breaking measurement of 5.75m.
"This year's record was a really nice one, especially since it was grad in between all of it. It was definitely a great one to have," she said. "In the end you can't really say which one is the best one to have because I'm just really happy that I was able to get any really, at the end. It was just a really fun day to be able to do the thing I love most in between a little bit of school as well."
In shot put Oudenaarden's sixth and final throw was the winner. Her previous personal bests were 11.37m outdoors and 12.10m indoors.
"I was really hoping for a 13 that time but on one of my throws, the 12.53, it was already a personal best so the fact that I was able to surpass it was really nice actually," said Oudenaarden, who was voted by her grad class the most likely to win an Olympic medal.
Oudenaarden will now prepare for the Olympic trials at the end of the month in Calgary and the U19 worlds July 10 to 15 in Barcelona, Spain. In the fall the U18 heptathlon champion at the 2010 Legion nationals will attend San Diego State University on a track scholarship.
Top four finishers
The following St. Albert and area athletes achieved top four placings at provincials last weekend.
Morgan Christensen, junior female, Bellerose Bulldogs: gold, 200m (24.45 seconds, 1/100th of a second off the 1981 record held by Jillian Richardson of Calgary); silver, 100m (12.44).
Paige Knull, junior female, St. Albert Skyhawks: gold, shot put (10.48m).
Tyler Lazarenko, junior male, Bellerose: silver, 100m (11.58) and 200m (22.71).
Arinn Young, junior female, Morinville Wolves: fourth place, shot put (9.29m).
Kyle Speer, intermediate male, Sturgeon Spirits: gold, discus (39.59m).
Hayley Francois, intermediate female, Skyhawks: bronze, 800m (2:23.23) and 1,500m (5:07.10). Her sister, Rachel, holds the intermediate 800m provincial record of 2:12.89, set in 2010 with the Paul Kane Blues.
Adeline Maunder, intermediate female, Paul Kane: fourth place, 3,000m (11:12.46).
Jordan Rooke, intermediate male, Morinville: fourth place, javelin (44.24m).
Mitch McNamara, senior male, Skyhawks: gold, 200m (22.26).
Chris Auger, senior male, Morinville: silver, javelin (48.98m).
