The Canadian Track and Field Trials for the 2012 London Olympics are underway in Calgary for St. Albert athletes Rachel Francois and Niki Oudenaarden.
Francois will run the 800 metres and Oudenaarden will compete in javelin.
Next month the Paul Kane High School graduates will represent Canada at major international meets. Francois made the U23 team in the 800m for the North American, Central America and Caribbean championships in Guanajuato, Mexico.
Oudenaarden will throw the javelin at the IAAF world junior championships in Barcelona, Spain.
Francois, the 2012 Canadian Interuniversity Sport female rookie of the year with the Victoria Vikes, finished her university debut undefeated in the 600 metres after winning the CIS final in March. The Canada West first team all-star also anchored the Vikes’ relay teams.
Oudenaarden surpassed the U19 world javelin standard with a personal best of 49.27m last month in Calgary.
Her third provincial high school record in three years was for senior javelin earlier this month when the Paul Kane student won her eighth gold medal – and 10th overall – at the Alberta Schools’ Athletic Association competition.
Francois also holds the Alberta high school intermediate 800m record. In Grade 12 she won the senior 800m, her fifth gold medal for Paul Kane at provincials.
The St. Albert Miners extended their winning streak to four games in the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League in Saturday’s 14-8 decision against the Calgary Mountaineers at Northstar Hyundai Arena.
The Miners are 5-1 at home after their sixth win in the seven games.
The reigning senior B provincial champions led 7-2 after the first period and 10-5 going into the third.
Graedon Cornfield whipped up four goals and two assists and captain Nate Schmidt tallied three times and added three assists. Jordan Cornfield potted a pair and Sean Reid, Jason Riley, Luc Huyser-Wierenga, Chris Schmidt and Derek Draper sniped singles against the winless Mountaineers.
Grant MacLeod drew the start in net with all-star David Marrese unavailable with an eye infection.
This weekend the Miners play the Mountaineers on Saturday night and the Rockyview Knights (7-1) Sunday afternoon at Stu Peppard Arena in Calgary.
Baseball’s bantam AAA St. Albert Cardinals outscored the Red Deer Braves 39-7 in three games last weekend at Legion Memorial Park.
Saturday in the series opener Erik Sabrowski fanned seven batters in four innings of no-hit ball and Tanner McLean-Poll didn’t allow a hit in the fifth as the Cardinals mercied the Braves 20-0.
The Cardinals were only two runners away from a perfect game, with two Braves reaching base on errors.
Sabrowski also belted two triples and a single for three RBIs. Matt Quartel had three hits.
In game two, Austin Watamaniuk’s inside-the-park home run highlighted a 15-hit attack in the 9-6 win. Quartel drove home three runs and Jakob Brinkhof added a double and a triple.
Dylan Gates was credited with the win and McLean-Poll tossed two shutout innings for the save.
Sunday the Cardinals won 10-1 to complete the weekend sweep. Southpaw Cam Mazur allowed two hits over four innings while striking out three. Tyler Schwendeman gave up one hit in two innings of relief and Jackson Wark closed out the seventh by striking out all three batters he faced.
Mitchell King singled twice, walked once and scored three times.
Tuesday’s score between the Cardinals (13-3) and Sherwood Park Green in Sherwood Park was unavailable at press time.
This weekend at the Cloverdale Cup in Vancouver the Cardinals play the Victoria Black Eagles, Victoria Red Eagles and Whalley Little League.
