This is the first in a series of articles about the athletes, coaches, and builders who make up the Prince Albert Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2026. The induction ceremony will be held at the Ches Leach Lounge on May 2. See future editions of the Herald for articles on the rest of the induction class.
Katelyn Lehner didn’t think she was going to get any more accolades from her life in track and field.
The 31-year-old has been very focused on her singing career for about the past half decade. She never thought she would get the call to become a member of the Prince Albert Sports Hall of Fame.
“I was so shocked,” said Lehner. “It was such an exciting phone call to get.
“I’ve been retired for five years now. I felt like all of my track accomplishments had kind of run their course. It was super exciting to be getting that call and to be recognized in my home town.
“Immediately, it just brought back a lot of really good memories of my sport days and growing up and competing and training in Prince Albert. I feel very honoured to be included in this year’s class.”
Starting in the sport at age 12, Lehner would become one of the most decorated athletes to come out of track and field in Prince Albert. While attending St. Mary High School, Lehner won gold in every discipline she entered in taking part in the Prince Albert High School City Championships and the North Central District Championships. Her success came in the 100-metre and 200-metre races, high jump, long jump and 80-metre hurdles.
At the Saskatchewan High Schools Athletic Association provincial championships, Lehner took home three female aggregate titles leading to her high school graduation in 2013. She also took part in the 2012 Olympic trials and the 2017 Canada Summer Games.
In 2012, Lehner was named the Youth Female Athlete of the Year by Sask. Sport and the Prince Albert Kinsmen Female Athlete of the Year. She looks back on her high school years fondly.
“It was just like so exciting,” said Lehner, who stands 5-foot-9. “I worked really hard.
“I was so blown away by like all the accomplishments. Especially now like being able to look back and kind of read through my athletic bio in high school, you get to see it in a different light, and it is like, wow, I really did a lot and accomplished a lot and set records and won awards and won medals at all these different meets. It is so exciting, and it is so good to look back on.
“I think back to all the hard work, and there were a lot of sacrifices that I made in my earlier years to be doing athletics. I think that all those awards were just really a pat on the back and really made me feel like what I was putting in was worthwhile. The fact too that I can be able to represent my high school in St. Mary and Prince Albert and Saskatchewan and Canada on these different levels was always really important and special to me.”
During those days, Lehner credits her St. Mary High School head coach Kelly Prins for helping her excel like she did.
“Kelly (Prins) was a really big part of that,” said Lehner. “I have such good memories of him.
“He was such a big supporter with me. When I think back to my high school days, I think back to Kelly Prins and my dad (Stirling Lehner), because my dad did a lot of training with me too through those high school days. There were trips we would take down I remember to Quebec for nationals.
“Kelly (Prins) is such a great person, and there are so many good memories and laughs thinking back to those days.”
Shortly after graduating high school, Lehner got to compete in the Pan American Junior Athletics Championships in August of 2013 in Medellin, Colombia. She placed sixth in the heptathlon. Lehner said that was her most memorable moment of her track and field career, because she got to represent Canada internationally for the first time at that event.
“I still very specifically remember the box just showing up at the house in P.A. and just opening up the kit and being able to put on the Team Canada singlet for the first time and just like looking at yourself in the mirror with it,” said Lehner. “It is a whirlwind of memories and just hard work and you really get to appreciate the whole journey that has led you to that moment.”
Lehner would then compete for the University of Calgary Dinos Women’s Track and Field Team for three seasons. She closed her U Sports career suiting up for the University of Saskatchewan Huskies Women’s Track and Field Team for two campaigns exhausting her eligibility following the 2018-19 season. The driven athlete piled up numerous accolades with both teams.
Lehner joined the Huskies at the start of the 2017-18 campaign as her younger brother Karson Lehner was growing to be a star on the Huskies Men’s Track and Field Team. As an added bonus, Katelyn joined the Huskies when former Huskie athlete Jason Reindl returned to the U of S after coaching in Eastern Canada to become the head coach of both Huskies track and field teams. She felt rejuvenated in the sport having Reindl as her coach.
“Jason (Reindl) is good,” said Lehner, who helped the Huskies with Canada West women’s team titles in both her campaigns with the program. “He has been around for so many years.
“He gets it. He knows what it is like to be an athlete and just like such a good person too. It is always fun to run into him now.
“We get to reminisce about the good old days when I was part of the team. It is always really fun.”
While track and field was a passion for Lehner, singing and being in music had been an even further back passion in her life going back to age 3. Growing up in Prince Albert, Lehner was a regular at talent shows and performances at the Prince Albert Exhibition and the EA Rawlinson Centre, when she wasn’t pursuing sports.
Track and field became her biggest focus in her university days. Still, Lehner kept dabbling in singing expecting to return to that world at some point in her life.
She began pursuing it more once she graduated from university. Lehner put out her first song in 2020 during the time when various aspects of life were shut down due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
While music was becoming a bigger part of her life, Lehner was still competing as an elite level track and field athlete. She hit a crossroad one weekend in the summer of 2021, when she was originally slated to take part in a competition and was offered the chance to open for country music star Dean Brody at one of his concerts. The chance to open for Brody won out.
“I was like I have to go be on stage for Dean Brody,” said Lehner. “This is always what I have wanted to do.
“My departure from track was really just a temporary pause that just kept going in the music lane.”
After opening for Brody, Lehner told her track coaches she was taking the indoor season over the winter months off, and she expected to return to the sport for the summer of 2022. She didn’t get back into track and field as doors kept opening for her music career.
“I just ended up really transitioning out of athletics in a really like natural way,” said Lehner. “I think that it was really good that music was doing well for me and kind of gave me a new passion and new goals to chase.
“I feel like my athlete brain and like competitive hardworking brain from track really transitioned pretty seamlessly into the music career. Here we are. It has been five years of a rollercoaster and a lot of really, really, fun achievements and moments and stages to be on.
“I couldn’t love it anymore.”
In November of 2024, Lehner did a fundraising concert for the Huskies track and field teams. She enjoyed the fact she was able to combine the two sides of her life she loved for one night. Lehner is looking forward to connecting her sporting past again when she returns to Prince Albert to be inducted into the Prince Albert Sports Hall of Fame.
“It is going to be really nice to kind of get back into that world and celebrate sport for a night in Prince Albert with all the other nominees and to be able to see everyone,” said Lehner. “I don’t go back to P.A. super frequently these days.
“It is always really great to go back, and it is small town P.A. You get to see a lot of people that you know. I think it will be a really fun night of seeing old friends and just reminiscing on some really great moments in sport.”
The 34th Prince Albert Sports Hall of Fame induction banquet is scheduled for Saturday, May 2 at the Ches Leach Lounge at 7 p.m. For tickets, contact Jody Boulet at [email protected].
Darren Steinke is a Saskatoon-based freelance sportswriter and photographer. He blogs frequently at stankssermon.blogspot.com.
