Anj Grewal of St. Albert backstopped Team Canada West to a bronze medal at the U19 World Ringette Championship in London, Ont.
Grewal stopped 34 shots in Thursday’s 7-1 win over Russia in the third-place playoff match.
Canada West finished in a three-way tie for first place with Team Canada East and Finland at 3-0-2 in the six-team round robin
In the semifinals Grewal started against Finland and gave up seven goals on 24 shots in 36 minutes in the 11-3 loss.
Grewal, 18, also made 21 saves in the 8-1 victory over Team USA and stopped 20 of 25 shots in 18:08 minutes in the 10-8 decision against Russia in the round robin.
In the final, Canada East defeated the defending Finnish champions 6-2.
Team USA finished fifth overall with forward Janelle Wilk and netminder Lauryn Girard of St. Albert in the line-up. Chelsea Stone of St. Albert was part of the coaching staff.
Team USA, France and Russia are countries developing their ringette programs and are not yet able to support teams at the elite levels so the players from Canada filled out their rosters.
The Team USA roster was comprised of nine players from Alberta, three from Manitoba, two from Saskatchewan and one from British Columbia.
France featured primarily Quebec players and Russia was made up mostly of Ontario players.
Team USA was 0-5 in the round robin and in the fifth/sixth playoff game beat France 8-0. Wilk, 16, recorded one goal and one assist. In the round robin she had two assists and 10 penalty minutes in five games.
Girard, 16, saw action in round-robin losses of 13-0 to Finland (eight GA on 13 shots in 23:22 minutes), 8-1 to Canada West (eight GA on 38 shots in 48 minutes) and 9-4 to France (nine GA on 40 shots in 48 minutes).
The U19 worlds is an International Ringette Federation event. The inaugural U19 worlds was held in 2009 in Prague, Czech Republic.
Tara Feser of St. Albert was among 24 female players invited to the 2013 Wheelchair Basketball Canada selection camp underway in Las Vegas, Nev.
Feser, 32, is one of nine players at the camp who competed at the London 2012 Paralympic Games. Canada finished sixth after placing fifth at the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing, China with Feser in the line-up.
Canada was ranked No. 3 in the world prior to the London Paralympics.
The next major international competition for Canada is the Osaka Cup, Feb. 13 to 17 in Japan.
Feser is classified as a 4.5 player, with normal trunk movement in all directions and can reach side to side with no limitations.
The 2010 Wheelchair Basketball Canada’s female athlete of the year has played for Canada since 2008.
The MVP for the 2009 NCAA champion University of Alabama Crimson Tide was a member of Canada’s bronze-medal winning team at worlds in 2010. The next world championship is 2014 in Toronto.
The 10th annual Boston Pizza SAPEC Invitational Junior High Basketball Tournament tips off Thursday at 4 p.m. in St. Albert.
The winning teams in the opening draw advance into the A division and the losing teams compete in the B division.
Saturday’s finals at Vincent J. Maloney School are 1 p.m. for the girls and 2:15 p.m. for the boys in the B division and 3:30 p.m. for the girls and 4:45 p.m. for the boys in the A division.
Games will also be played at Sir George Simpson, Lorne Akins, Richard S. Fowler and Vincent J. Maloney in the three-day competition.
The tournament draw features 16 girls’ and 16 boys’ teams. Local teams include the Elmer S. Gish Warriors, ESSMY Leopards, Lorne Akins Gators, Richard S. Fowler Falcons, Sir George Simpson Voyageurs, Vincent J. Maloney Marauders, William D. Cuts Crusaders, Morinville Wolves, Camilla Thunderbirds and Sturgeon Heights Eagles.
Last year the lady Marauders repeated as tournament champions for their third title in six years and St. Thomas Aquinas of Spruce Grove beat the Marauders by 10 points in the boys’ final.
