Portage Collegiate's girls came back with five medals from last week's provincial high school track and field championships in Winnipeg.

Hailee Morisseau won gold in the 3000 metre varsity girls event.

Bronze medals went to Erin Owens in the 1500 and 3000 metres.

Devon Borody won bronze in the varsity girls long jump, while Lydia Suderman picked up bronze in the JV high jump.

Coach Darin Arnold's pleased, noting their good showing didn't come as a surprise.

"We were kind of expecting it. We knew from the times coming in that our group of, especially girls, would be really competitive. We were still shocked by the fact that we still pulled it off, but we were kind of expecting it, going in."

Arnold thinks this performance speaks to all the work the school's done over the last four years.

"Not just myself, but my assistant coaches, like Darren Durdle, Dave McLeod. and Janey Bradford. Four years ago, we had six kids going to provincials. This year, we had 14, so to see the numbers, and the athletes coming out, every year after year -- and the numbers keep getting bigger every year, it's good to see. As a coach, that's what you want to see."

Arnold stresses the championships produced more results than simply medals.

"Almost everybody at the meet that competed set personals bests. Lots of school records fell as well, so they were really good results. We were second over-all for JV girls -- we lost out to Warren Collegiate -- so that's a new high for our program to be that close to a provincial banner as well."

Arnold thinks this kind of showing will encourage more PCI students to take part in the track and field program.

Here are the athletes receiving their medals.