The Lions Western Canadian Challenge serves up its 18th annual high school volleyball tournament Thursday at 1 p.m. in St. Albert and Morinville.
The tournament venues are the Morinville Community, Bellerose Composite and St. Albert Catholic high schools and the Georges H. Primeau and Notre Dame schools in Morinville.
Twenty-four men’s and 24 women’s teams will compete for medals. Local teams are the Bellerose Bulldogs, St. Albert Skyhawks, Sturgeon Spirits and the Morinville Wolves, the tournament hosts.
Out-of-province teams are Ecole Saint Jean Baptiste of Winnipeg and Ecole St. Joachim of La Broquerie, Man. in the women’s pool.
The defending champions are the Peace Wapiti Academy Titans of Grande Prairie in the men’s division and the Ardrossan Bisons in the women’s division.
The top two finishers in the four men’s and four women’s pools advance to the round of 16. The winners qualify for the quarter-finals and the losers move into the consolation bracket.
The remaining four teams in all the pools will compete for spots in the round of 16 and the consolation side.
Saturday’s playoffs start at 8 a.m. In the medal round, Bellerose hosts the women’s semifinals at 5:30 p.m., the third-place match at 7 p.m. and the final at 8 p.m. Morinville is the site for the men’s semifinals at 5:30 p.m., the third-place match at 7 p.m. and the final at 8 p.m.
The consolation finals are 7 p.m. at St. Albert Catholic for the women and Primeau for the men.
Visit www.mchs.gsacrd.ab.ca/wcc/ for the tournament website.
The provincial high school cross-country championships hit the ground running Saturday afternoon in Red Deer.
The top 18 finishers in the various male and female distances at the Edmonton zone championships last Wednesday advance to provincials. The course at zones at Goldbar Park was modified due to the inclement weather.
Seven athletes representing the Bellerose Bulldogs, Paul Kane Blues and St. Albert Skyhawks qualified for provincials. Their placings and times at zones are listed as follows.
Senior males, 6,000 metres: Ben Sperling, Blues (5th, 18.06 minutes); Alexander Dielemann, Blues (14th, 19.17).
Junior females, 3,000m: Lindsay Riege, Blues (3rd, 10.22).
Intermediate females, 4,000m: Adeline Maunder, Blues (1st, 13.54); Monica McDowell, Skyhawks (5th, 15.02); Grace VanDerVelden, Bulldogs (18th, 16.17).
Senior females, 4,000m: Hayley Francois, Skyhawks (1st, 13.55).
Last year Francois was the intermediate female champion at 17.20 in Elkwater with the Skyhawks after placing second overall in the junior final at 13.14 in Vermilion with Paul Kane. She is a two-time Athletics Alberta cross-country female of the year award winner in the midget (2010) and youth (2011) divisions.
