The women’s and men’s basketball teams at St. Albert Catholic High School are listed first and fourth, respectively, in the latest 3A provincial rankings.
The lady Skyhawks maintained their No. 1 position in the second rankings of the season.
The 2012 metro Edmonton champions and three-time reigning provincial gold medallists are 6-0 in league play as the only 3A team in the premier conference and 16-0 overall. They are undefeated in 24 games and haven’t lost since Feb. 25, 2012 – 68-66 to the McCoy Colts of Medicine Hat in the final of the Wetaskiwin tournament.
The Skyhawks men’s team jumped up from ninth place in the rankings on the strength of two victories over the Leduc Tigers this month – 93-86 in metro premier action in Leduc and 80-74 in the final of the Beaumont tournament. The Tigers dropped from sixth to seventh in the rankings.
The Skyhawks are 3-3 in premier and 12-8 overall. The Tigers are 1-4 in premier.
The No. 1 team is the Edmonton Christian Lions of the Edmonton public league. The Lions are one of eight teams competing in the Skyhawks tournament Feb. 15-16.
Meanwhile, the lady Skyhawks host their second annual invitational tournament next week at the SkyDome and Morinville Community High School. The 16-team draw features the Bishop O’Byrne Bobcats of Calgary, ranked No. 1 in 4A. The Skyhawks and Bobcats are on opposite sides of the draw and are expected to meet in the Feb. 2 final at 4 p.m. at the SkyDome.
Joining the Bobcats from Calgary in the tournament are Bowness, Ernest Manning, Bishop Carroll and Bishop Grandin.
Also entered are Miles Macdonell of Winnipeg, James Mahoney of Saskatoon and two Grande Prairie teams, St. Joseph and the Warriors.
Rounding out the field are the W.P. Wagner Warriors, St. Francis Xavier Rams, Wetaskiwin Sabres, Edmonton Christian, Chestermere Lakers and the Morinville Wolves. The Wolves are No. 10 in the 3A rankings as the second north central zone team in the top 10. They were an honourable mention in the last rankings.
The Wolves hook up with Chestermere at 8 p.m. Thursday in Morinville.
The Skyhawks’ first game is Thursday versus W.P. Wagner at 3 p.m. at the SkyDome.
The Lorne Akins Crush junior high wrestling team pinned down second place at the all-girls’ tournament last week at Mother Mary High School in Edmonton.
Eight female Crushers returned home with medals. Sarah Weihmann won gold, Keira de Bruijn, Danielle Riege, McKenna Marthiensen, Rebecca Sunby and Taylor Pozkzik were silver medallists and Makena Krueger and Taite Broadhurst were awarded bronze.
The third meet of the season for the Crushers is the all-boys’ competition today at the Alberta School for the Deaf.
Dan Holowaychuk of St. Albert is going to provincials with the Wade White rink after the Saville Sports Centre foursome defeated James Pahl of Sherwood Park 5-3 in the B final in the Northern Alberta Curling Association playdowns Saturday at the Ottewell.
Holowaychuk throws second rocks for the White line-up that includes third Kevin Tym and lead George White.
Provincials run Feb. 6 to 10 in Leduc. The winner represents Alberta at the Brier, March 2 to 10 at Rexall Place.
The 12-team provincial draw features Jamie King’s St. Albert rink of Blake MacDonald, Scott Pfeifer and Jeff Erickson, plus defending champion Kevin Koe, 2010 Olympic gold medallist Kevin Martin, as well as Brent Bawell and Pahl.
Bawell and Pahl advanced to provincials with victories against Mike Hutchings of Morinville in the A and C finals, respectively. Bawell skunked Hutchings 8-0 in four ends Friday and Pahl rallied from a 4-1 deficit to win 8-6 Sunday.
This week Holowaychuk, the former fifth man for the Ferbey Four, is curling with White, third Doug McLennan and lead George Parsons at the senior 50-plus men’s northerns at the Thistle.
The first game for the St. Albert-based seniors is 4 p.m. Thursday against Russ LeMessurier of Spruce Grove.
Three rinks qualify for provincials, Feb. 13 to 17 at the Granite.
