The Weyburn Comprehensive School track team experienced bad luck when Old Man Winter visited Saskatchewan recently.

The team was supposed to attend the Moose Jaw invitational meet on May 13, but when the meet was cancelled due to inclement weather, it also meant the loss of valuable competition experience for several Weyburn athletes in the days leading up to the district-level championships.

On Wednesday, eight members of the team travelled to Regina for a mini-meet at Douglas Park. This will be the last meet before the district meet in Carlyle which finishes today.

"Not going to Moose Jaw really hurt us," said coach Len Williams. "We didn't get a chance to run our relay, and now we go into the district meet with less experience and opportunity to fine tune things."

On a brighter note, Williams will be sending 32 athletes to the meet - not bad considering there was a possibility there might not have been a track team this year.

"A couple of guys in the community weren't able to coach the team this year," said Williams. "I'm just trying to help out. I don't think we would have had a track team here this year if I didn't coach."

The Regina mini-meet had 100 athletes competing, including eight from Weyburn. Of those eight, three returned home with top three finishes.

Falon Svedahl, a Weyburn Junior High School student, won the midget girls 3,000 m race with a time of 12:14, a time faster than any midget girl in the Regina district has run this year.

Ashley Wirth won the midget girls discus with a throw of 25.9 m. Wirth will be competing in the junior girls category at the district meet. While that category has older athletes, Wirth will be given the chance to qualify for the provincial track meet in Saskatoon if she finishes first or second. Athletes in the midget age category do not qualify for the provincial meet.

Jesse Babiarz took second place in the junior boys javelin with a throw of 28.93 m.

With the results posted this year, Williams is expecting 12 athletes to qualify for the provincial meet. Whether those qualifying for provincials actually attend the championship will depend on their attendance and practice records.

Of the 12, Williams said he expects Andrew Loden to qualify in junior boys middle distance running events, Andrew Broccolo in junior boys sprinting events, and Falon Svedahl to do well in her events. He also expects Danielle McLeod to excel in hurdling, and Colton Tochor to do very well in the 800 m and 1,500 m.

"It's difficult to make predictions, but distance events have been a passion for me and at the same time we're strong in throwing events."