Pride Of The Peace!
Readiness, determination, confidence!
When the first starting gun went off, Zone 8 hadn't come just to participate. They showed up, they showed out, and they put athletics in the Wild Rose Province on notice. The Peace Country is rising!
Up against some of the best U16 track and field athletes Alberta has to offer, the Zone 8 contingent were not deterred. They knew every position counted — every centimetre, every second. Our athletes did what they knew they had to do, and they tackled it.
Day 1: only the beginning
Six medals down, a long list of top-eight finishes on the track, and points galore! By the end of the first day we had already matched our entire medal count from the 2023 Okotoks/Diamond Valley Alberta Summer Games. Jumps, hurdles, distance and throws all saw hardware rolling in for the northwestern Albertans — and they were just getting started!
Day 2: fuelled by day one
In the hot Strathcona County sun, day two saw another four performances cash in for gold, silver and bronze. At the end of the day the Zone 8 boys sat third, and the girls trailed in fourth by half a point. With day three loading, Zone 8 athletics knew they were on the edge of a historic U16 Summer Games run in track and field.
Day 3: relays, and going the distance
Despite less than sunny skies on the morning of the final track session, Peace Country ended their ASG campaign on a high — you could hear the chant all the way to Peace River.
Who's great? ZONE 8!
The girls' and boys' relays cruised through their races with epic results! The 2000m races saw incredible success, and the girls' medley relay rounded out the medal haul of the 2026 Zone 8 athletics team!
<figure class="si-fig"><img src="assets/img/asg/asg-team-flags.jpg" alt="The Zone 8 team gathered on the field with flags raised" loading="lazy"><figcaption>Flags up: the Zone 8 team closes out its 2026 Alberta Summer Games campaign.</figcaption></figure>
<figure class="si-fig"><img src="assets/img/asg/asg-relay-squads.jpg" alt="Zone 8 relay athletes in team hoodies after their races" loading="lazy"><figcaption>Rain on the last morning didn't dampen it: Zone 8 athletes after the day-three relays in Strathcona County.</figcaption></figure>
The team result
Medals are the crème de la crème of success in sport, especially in an individual discipline like track and field. But it is also a team sport, and nothing tells the story better than the team score. Each athlete finishing in the top eight earns points — 10 for first, 8 for second, 6 for third, then 5 down to 1 for fourth through eighth. The team with the most points wins.
In TRACK AND FIELD, Zone 8 — Peace Country Athletics placed third overall in Alberta: third in the boys' standings and third in the girls'. That is an achievement that hasn't been done in Zone 8 in living memory — and perhaps ever!
Worth separating the two numbers: third is the athletics team standing. Across all 18 sports at the Games, Zone 8 finished sixth of 8 zones on the overall medal table — so track and field placed far above where the zone landed overall.
Well done, Zone 8 athletics team! The Peace Country in northwest Alberta is insanely proud of every one of you!
Who's great? ZONE 8!
<aside class="si-live" data-live-note><span class="si-live-dot"></span><div><b class="si-live-h">Medal counts are still being tallied.</b> <span class="si-live-b">Zone 8's total stands at <b>27</b> (5 gold, 8 silver, 14 bronze) and may still rise as final results are confirmed. The figures on this page update themselves from the Games' own medal table, so what you are reading is current — check it against the <a href="https://albertagames.rampregistrations.com/results" target="_blank" rel="noopener">official Alberta Summer Games results portal</a> any time.</span></div></aside>
Zone 8 Athletics medallists
All events here are U16 (15 and under) — the category the Games list as "15U". These 15 are the track and field medals only. Zone 8 won 27 in total across all 18 sports at the 2026 Games — 5 gold, 8 silver and 14 bronze. So athletics brought home more than half of the zone's entire haul, and every one of its golds. [See the full Zone 8 medal table and every athlete's result](sports.html#alberta-games).
<div class="mdl mdl-gold"><img class="mdl-ic" src="assets/img/medal-gold.svg" alt="Gold medal" width="34" height="34" loading="lazy"><div class="mdl-tx"><b>Elizabeth McLeod</b><span class="mdl-ev">Girls 80m Hurdles · <strong>11.91</strong></span><em class="mdl-note">Wind-assisted at +2.2, so it could not stand as a record — the ASG mark is 11.96.</em></div><span class="mdl-rank">Gold</span></div>
<div class="mdl mdl-gold"><img class="mdl-ic" src="assets/img/medal-gold.svg" alt="Gold medal" width="34" height="34" loading="lazy"><div class="mdl-tx"><b>Jeremiah Peters</b><span class="mdl-ev">Boys High Jump · <strong>1.70m</strong></span></div><span class="mdl-rank">Gold</span></div>
<div class="mdl mdl-gold"><img class="mdl-ic" src="assets/img/medal-gold.svg" alt="Gold medal" width="34" height="34" loading="lazy"><div class="mdl-tx"><b>Hank Ewasiuk</b><span class="mdl-ev">Boys Shot Put (4kg) · <strong>11.44m</strong></span></div><span class="mdl-rank">Gold</span></div>
<div class="mdl mdl-gold"><img class="mdl-ic" src="assets/img/medal-gold.svg" alt="Gold medal" width="34" height="34" loading="lazy"><div class="mdl-tx"><b>Elizabeth McLeod</b><span class="mdl-ev">Girls 200m Hurdles · <strong>28.79</strong></span><em class="mdl-note">A tenth of a second off the ASG record.</em></div><span class="mdl-rank">Gold</span></div>
<div class="mdl mdl-gold"><img class="mdl-ic" src="assets/img/medal-gold.svg" alt="Gold medal" width="34" height="34" loading="lazy"><div class="mdl-tx"><b>Michelle Rivers</b><span class="mdl-ev">Girls 2000m · <strong>6:51.81</strong></span></div><span class="mdl-rank">Gold</span></div>
<div class="mdl mdl-silver"><img class="mdl-ic" src="assets/img/medal-silver.svg" alt="Silver medal" width="34" height="34" loading="lazy"><div class="mdl-tx"><b>Eva Turpin</b><span class="mdl-ev">Girls Pentathlon · <strong>1738 pts</strong></span><em class="mdl-note">Three points off first after an extraordinary 800m to close the day, making up a 150-point deficit from third.</em></div><span class="mdl-rank">Silver</span></div>
<div class="mdl mdl-silver"><img class="mdl-ic" src="assets/img/medal-silver.svg" alt="Silver medal" width="34" height="34" loading="lazy"><div class="mdl-tx"><b>Elizabeth McLeod</b><span class="mdl-ev">Girls 200m · <strong>25.75</strong></span></div><span class="mdl-rank">Silver</span></div>
<div class="mdl mdl-silver"><img class="mdl-ic" src="assets/img/medal-silver.svg" alt="Silver medal" width="34" height="34" loading="lazy"><div class="mdl-tx"><b>Girls Medley Relay</b><span class="mdl-ev">Belle Smith, Eva Turpin, Taylor Mercer, June Lynch · <strong>4:33.86</strong></span></div><span class="mdl-rank">Silver</span></div>
<div class="mdl mdl-bronze"><img class="mdl-ic" src="assets/img/medal-bronze.svg" alt="Bronze medal" width="34" height="34" loading="lazy"><div class="mdl-tx"><b>Hank Ewasiuk</b><span class="mdl-ev">Boys Discus · <strong>34.22m</strong></span></div><span class="mdl-rank">Bronze</span></div>
<div class="mdl mdl-bronze"><img class="mdl-ic" src="assets/img/medal-bronze.svg" alt="Bronze medal" width="34" height="34" loading="lazy"><div class="mdl-tx"><b>Michelle Rivers</b><span class="mdl-ev">Girls 1200m · <strong>3:51.97</strong></span></div><span class="mdl-rank">Bronze</span></div>
<div class="mdl mdl-bronze"><img class="mdl-ic" src="assets/img/medal-bronze.svg" alt="Bronze medal" width="34" height="34" loading="lazy"><div class="mdl-tx"><b>Belle Smith</b><span class="mdl-ev">Girls Triple Jump · <strong>10.16m</strong></span></div><span class="mdl-rank">Bronze</span></div>
<div class="mdl mdl-bronze"><img class="mdl-ic" src="assets/img/medal-bronze.svg" alt="Bronze medal" width="34" height="34" loading="lazy"><div class="mdl-tx"><b>June Lynch</b><span class="mdl-ev">Girls 800m · <strong>2:24.91</strong></span></div><span class="mdl-rank">Bronze</span></div>
<div class="mdl mdl-bronze"><img class="mdl-ic" src="assets/img/medal-bronze.svg" alt="Bronze medal" width="34" height="34" loading="lazy"><div class="mdl-tx"><b>Kehlan Duncan</b><span class="mdl-ev">Boys 2000m · <strong>6:12.09</strong></span></div><span class="mdl-rank">Bronze</span></div>
<div class="mdl mdl-bronze"><img class="mdl-ic" src="assets/img/medal-bronze.svg" alt="Bronze medal" width="34" height="34" loading="lazy"><div class="mdl-tx"><b>Girls 4x100m Relay</b><span class="mdl-ev">Elizabeth McLeod, Heidi Potosky, Lily Perrin, Preslyn McAllister · <strong>52.98</strong></span></div><span class="mdl-rank">Bronze</span></div>
<div class="mdl mdl-bronze"><img class="mdl-ic" src="assets/img/medal-bronze.svg" alt="Bronze medal" width="34" height="34" loading="lazy"><div class="mdl-tx"><b>Boys 4x100m Relay</b><span class="mdl-ev">Isaiah Dyck, Levi Driedger, William Giesbrecht, Theoryn Goodbrand · <strong>50.84</strong></span></div><span class="mdl-rank">Bronze</span></div>
<aside class="si-bio"><img class="si-bio-img" src="assets/img/asg/coach-chris.jpg" alt="Coach Christopher Nelissen" width="96" height="96" loading="lazy"><div class="si-bio-body"><span class="si-bio-k">About the author</span><p><b><a href="https://wolvesac.com/coaches/#:~:text=Coach%20Chris%20Nelissen" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Christopher Nelissen</a></b> is the head Grande Prairie and region coach with the <a href="https://wolvesac.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Peace Country Wolves Athletics Club</a>, the Peace Country's competitive track and field and cross-country running club. He served as Zone 8 Representative for the 2026 Alberta Summer Games track team he writes about here.</p><p>He came to coaching as a competitor. A sprinter by background, he has raced everything from the 100m to the 1500m and tested himself well off the track too, in cross-country and trail races from 3km to 20km, before finding his own niche in middle distance.</p><p>He began coaching in 2018 and holds Trained status from Athletics Canada at the Sprints and Hurdles Club coach level. He is also meet director of the Peace Country Classic, Grande Prairie’s annual all-comers track meet.</p><p>Under his direction the Zone 8 athletics team came home from the 2026 Games with 15 track and field medals and finished <b>third in Alberta in track and field</b> — third in the boys’ team standings and third in the girls’. That is the athletics result specifically, not the zone’s overall Games placing, and it is the strongest track and field finish Zone 8 has recorded in living memory.</p><span class="si-bio-credit">Photo & bio details: <a href="https://wolvesac.com/coaches/#:~:text=Coach%20Chris%20Nelissen" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Peace Country Wolves Athletics Club coaching staff</a></span></div></aside>
Read next
[27 Medals, One Zone: how Peace Country stacked up at the 2026 Games](article.html?slug=zone-8-peace-country-27-medals-2026-alberta-summer-games) — the full medal table, every Zone 8 athlete's result, and how this year compares to the 2024 Winter Games.
[See every Zone 8 result, searchable by athlete and hometown](sports.html#alberta-games)
<aside class="si-gallery"><span class="si-gal-k">📸 Photo gallery</span><h3><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/204625471@N06/albums/72177720334459693" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Official photos from the 2026 Alberta Summer Games</a></h3><p>Hundreds of pictures from the four days in Strathcona County — track, field, relays and podiums. Worth a scroll if your athlete was there.</p><a class="si-gal-btn" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/204625471@N06/albums/72177720334459693" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Open the full album on Flickr →</a></aside>