The 2017 Edition of the Private Schools Track & Field Championships held last Friday at the Truman Bodden Stadium saw St. Ignatius Catholic School grabbing their first hold of the Murray Westerborg Trophy.

The Meet got off a few minutes late bit was soon back on schedule and finished just slightly ahead of the scheduled time, in keeping with the previous editions of the one-day Championship which featured 100 events. At the end of it all St. Ignatius scored 1411.3 points to wrest the Overall Championship trophy for the first time.

The Championship this year introduced a novel weighting system based on the size of school population, which assisted St Ignatius in edging past Cayman Prep (1373 points), Montessori By the Sea (649), Cayman International School (609.5), Grace Christian Academy (364), Triple C (322), Hope Academy (229.5) and Wesleyan Christian Academy (178.45) to take the Overall Championship Trophy.

This year four schools competed in the Big Schools Category and defending Champions, Cayman Prep & High School (1373) prevailed over St. Ignatius (1283) Cayman International School (530) and Triple C (280).

In the Small Schools Category, the absence of defending Champions, Cayman Prep and the moving of Cayman International School into the Big Schools Division meant that there would be a first-time holder of this Trophy and Wesleyan Christian Academy (83) rose to the top of the class over Hope Academy (51), Grace Christian Academy (56) and Montessori By the Sea (59).

A total of 17 new records were broken at the Championship and a new one established in the Year 10 Girls 400m. Leading the record-breaking charge was Carifta Games prospect Jaden Francis of Cayman Prep who established new marks for the Year 10 Girls 100m, 200m, 400m and as a member of her schools 4x100m relay team. Other new record holders are Charlotte Kerr (Catholic) Year 7 Girls 300m; Alex Bodden (Prep) Year 7 Boys 1500m; Jaiden Reid (Catholic) Year 8 Boys 200m; Niel Brown (CCC) Year 9 Boys 100m & 200m; Levi Superville (Prep) Year 9 Boys 1500m; Cameron Sinclair (Prep) Year 9 Boys Shot Put; Caleb McFarlane (WCA) Year 10 Boys Shot Put; Ava Hider (CIS) Year 11 Girls 800m and 1500m; Dante Baptiste (Catholic) Year 11 Boys 400m. New marks were established in the Years 10, 11, 12/13 Girls 400m, Years 7-9 and 10-13 High Jump events.

Divisional Champions were Charlotte Kerr (Prep) and Ty Goddard (Catholic) in the Year 7 Division; Tracey Campbell (Catholic) and Justin Byles (Prep) in the Year 8 Division; Molly Kehoe (Prep) and Levi Superville (Pre) in the Year 9 Division; Jaden Francis (Prep) and Cameron Brown (Prep) in the Year 10 Division; Jenny Licona (Catholic) and Dante Baptiste (Catholic) in the Year 11 Division; Deajra Tulloch (Catholic) and Will Edwards (Prep) in the Years 12/13 Division.

The outstanding performances of Jaden Francis and Dante Baptiste earned them the Victrix Ludorum and Victor Ludorum awards for 2017.