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Bender aims to continue St. Marys DCVI's steeplechase success

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The year before he started high school at St. Marys, Ezra Bender heard about DCVI track star Marcel Scheele running to a second straight provincial steeplechase title.

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Bender looked up to the two-time OFSAA champ, who in 2018 shattered the 33-year Huron-Perth open boys’ steeplechase record by nearly seven seconds.

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Bender, thanks to the pandemic, waited three years to compete for the Salukis in track and field. Now 16, he picked up where Scheele left off by also winning the unique 2,000-metre event Tuesday at St. Anne’s Catholic secondary school in Clinton.

“I want to be like him someday,” Bender said. “I’m just excited for next year and this year.

“It’s nice to be out here. I’ve always missed it.”

The Grade 11 athlete was competing in the steeplechase for the first time. He’d run long distance before and worked in some hurdles prior to the regional meet and WOSSAA qualifier, but he’d never done the race that requires jumping over — or through — four pits of water.

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“I had fun with it,” he said. “I went out there and knew it wasn’t going to be too bad. There were only four signed up. I just wanted to work on getting over the barriers.”

On that front, Bender acknowledged navigating the timing and technique of jumping off the steeple was a learning experience.

“It felt weird going over it the first time,” he said. “Every time I went around, I tried to get a bit better. It didn’t really happen.”

Bender tripped over the steeple on the third lap and landed face first in the water. He made a quick recovery — and a joke to spectators lining the adjacent fence — and kept running, like he’d come out of a wading pool.

“I really noticed the first time I got in the water,” he said. “I got more comfortable with it. The hurdles weren’t too bad. Just the steeple.”

Bender, who also ran the 1,500m race Tuesday and will compete in the 3,000m event and 4x400m relay Wednesday, qualified for the Western Ontario championships next week in London.

It’s one reason why he decided to compete.

“It’s a pretty competitive race in the other (distance events),” he said. “This is still hard, but I just wanted to try something new.

“I have pretty good endurance and speed right now. My coaches have set me up for that. I wouldn’t have won if it was a shorter race.”

But he did. And now he’s following in Scheele’s wet footsteps.

cosmith@postmedia.com

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