The 2025 Ontario Relay Championship U16 selects meet took place January 11 and 12, and Stratford was represented by two local athletes. Brother and sister duo Lucas and Payten DeBlock each took part in two events.
Lucas would finish in 48th place in the Men’s 300 Metre Open Dash with a time of 43.00. He followed that up with a 37th place finish in the Men’s 800 Metre Run Open with a time of 2.18.00. Payten finished in 12th place in the Women’s 800 Metre Run Open with a time of 2.26.00. She followed that up by finishing in 27th spot in the Women’s 2,000 Metre Run Open with a time of 7.15.00.
Both athletes represented the Stratford Sabrecats. Ian Morton, the club's president and head coach of the organization, talked about the accomplishment.
“The two are from the Mitchell area, and they are doing pretty amazing,” Morton said. “We have really high hopes for them both this year. Lucas is in the U16 category and we’re hoping he qualifies for nationals this year. Payton meanwhile is a great distance runner, and she will have some good opportunities in the coming years. Both definitely below to compete with the best in the province.”
The Sabrecats fielded 122 athletes for competition last year, with a wide age range covered by that group.
“We have some real talented athletes in this area,”said Morton. “Our athletes range in age from 6-years-old all the way to 18-years-old. So we are able to see lots of different abilities within those age ranges. We offer a junior development program that is for kids aged 6 to 9, and a senior development program which is for youth aged 10 and 11, and those programs really introduce different events to the kids, so they kind of get an overview of all track and field, so they are running, jumping, throwing and as they get older the kids get to see what events they like most.”
The organization can be found on their website, and if people are looking for more information they can reach out to Morton directly through email [email protected].
