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The Arctic Sports Championships wrapped up on Friday. The Champs took place April 6-8 at Vanier Catholic Secondary School in Whitehorse.

Grades 8-9 and 10-12 took their turn competing on Friday.

Several local schools, as well as a few from Juneau, Alaska participated.

Vanier鈥檚 Dimas Mateo Sotil, 15, finished the event in style, winning the Grade 8-9 Male One Foot High Kick and Inuit Stick Pull, as well as the Overall Grade 8-9 title.

Sotil, a native of Barcelona, Spain, won the High Kick by reaching a height of 265 cm, or about 8.69鈥�. He even attempted to reach 270 cm, but wasn鈥檛 able to. He said it felt 鈥渞eally great鈥� to win the High Kick.

鈥淚 think I beat my personal best. My personal best was 8鈥�5鈥�. I think I just passed it.鈥�

Sotil explained what made him successful.

鈥淚 just keep trying until I get it ... I never focus on missing it. I just focus on 鈥業 have to kick it鈥� and I just kick it. 鈥�

After winning the stick pull and overall title, a very sore Sotil expressed how he felt.

鈥淚 feel pretty proud I guess. I did a good job. I wasn鈥檛 expecting to do this good, but I鈥檓 pretty happy.鈥�

Sotil had a real battle on his hands in the stick pull.

鈥淭he stick pull is very very tough. I thought I was going to lose, but I just pulled through it.

鈥淚t was tough. My hands hurt a lot from the stick pull. My arms, my back, everything hurts a lot,鈥� stated Sotil.

Sotil was pleased to win first overall as well.

鈥淚t does feel pretty good.

鈥淚鈥檓 happy. I did pretty good today,鈥� added Sotil.

Eric Porter, Arctic sports instructor for Yukon Aboriginal Sports Circle, said it was a good day.

鈥淚t鈥檚 always fun when you get the high school students in, because it鈥檚 the most competitive aspects of each event. So you get to see a lot of the top athletes in Whitehorse compete against each other.

鈥淎nd having Juneau come as well is actually huge, and just to grow Arctic Sports in the Yukon is very important for us.鈥�

Porter estimated 50-60 kids took part in Friday鈥檚 events.

鈥淚t was good. It gets less and less hectic after each day, because you start with the younger kids first. It鈥檚 just about growing Arctic Sports 鈥� that鈥檚 the most important. And a lot of them have fun.鈥�

The team from Juneau was comprised of Juneau Douglas High School, Thunder Mountain high School, and Dzantik鈥檌 Heeni Middle School. A total of 10 kids competed.

Juneau coach Kyle Worl was happy with the way the event went for his young group.

鈥淚 think this is a super-great event. This is our third time attending. We weren鈥檛 able to attend for a couple years because of the pandemic but we鈥檙e glad to be back and we brought a lot of our younger athletes so they gain experience and meet new athletes and experience Whitehorse.

鈥淚t鈥檚 been a fun trip so far. We got to do some exploring to Carcross yesterday but this is what they鈥檝e been waiting for. To be on the floor and meeting other athletes. So it was a good day and I鈥檓 proud of them. I think they did really well.鈥�

They brought a couple of middle-schoolers along, too.

鈥淚 think it was great ... a lot of the younger ones set personal records for themselves. This was the first time we traveled with some of our middle-schoolers, so it鈥檚 a really good experience event for them. They鈥檙e still kind of learning the rules and how the games work in a competition setting, so this was a really good introduction for the younger ones.鈥�

Worl added 鈥渢hanks to the Yukon Aboriginal Sports Circle for hosting us and inviting us. We鈥檙e always really appreciative of coming here and it鈥檚 always a great event.鈥�