St. Timothy's Thunder track and field/XC athletes have certainly had a tough go this fall.

While Mother Nature has thrown a few early snowballs their way, the junior and senior teams are still training hard in anticipation of a couple of upcoming events.

The senior team is prepping for this Saturday's (October 20) Provincial Championships in Vermillion while many of the junior athletes will be competing November 3rd at the Cochrane Ag Grounds. Head Coach, Travis Cummings shares while the juniors won't be running under the St. Tim's banner they are happy to have a race to work towards after City's were cancelled due to inclement weather. "My junior high crew were supposed to have their city champs on October the 4th and that was cancelled, so it was pretty disappointing for them. The CSSD didn't have a backup plan for my junior high's so I am hosting Club Provincials on the 3rd but they will race as Cochrane Endurance Project, so it's good that they have another competitive opportunity."

Despite what has been thrown their way, Cummings, says his crew has stayed pretty motivated as they are all pretty tough. "We have been running in the snow for pretty much most of the season so it is nice to have a break. It has been a bit of a frustrating season just because of the weather but when we have been able to race they have performed really well."

Strong performances at the senior level have led to eight athletes competing in Provincials this weekend. While City Championships are probably more nervewracking for the athletes, Cummings feels the Thunder has a pretty good shot. "We have eight kids going to prov's so that ties the school record. I think overall, we have one of the strongest teams I have seen throughout all the age groups going into Provincials. So I am hoping we come away with a Provincial medal, obviously it will depend on the competition."

St. Tim's Thunder are three-time silver medalists and while last year they came in just shy of medalling, Cummings is hopeful this year they make it into the top three. "It would be tough to win; Strathcona-Tweedsmuir always sends a lot of kids and that is our main competition but if we have good races, there could be an outside shot that we win. Our 'A' goal is to repeat with a silver medal but our A+ would be to beat Strathcona if we can, but it depends on how many entries they have. My kids are super motivated for it and are looking forward to it."

Darci Petersen will be one of eight who has an incredible shot at medalling, states Cummings. "Darci won City's so she should medal at Provincials. We don't have any specific goals other than go out and execute and the race will take care of itself. For Darci, if she performs to her A+ level then she should come away with a gold or silver medal."

The track and field/XC program at St. Tim's continues to grow exponentially and is gaining quite the name for itself. This year, Cummings shares he is running three tiers thanks to volunteer coaches Amy Swedlo and Pam Moores. "I have had to break it up into three different training sessions and then we collaborate. Even at this late in the season I had twenty-five kids out to practice. There is a really high percentage of kids at the school, I think we have about 450 kids, so about 10% of the school population is running cross country (XC)."

"It's what we've wanted but we have to make sure that it's planned accordingly. I have had lots of help from the community which is awesome."