The following St. Albert athletes returned home with medals from the Western Canada Summer Games in Kamloops:
• Rachael Francois, athletics: gold – 400 metres; silver – 800m and 4x400m relay.
• Mat Brisson, baseball: gold.
• Aaron Larose, baseball: gold.
• Marinya Marcichiw: female basketball: bronze.
• Andrew Salcedo, male basketball: bronze.
• Zane Warren, male basketball: bronze.
• Patrice Ahl, field hockey: silver.
• Tyler Saunders, male golf team: silver.
• Tyler-Rae Molloy, female soccer: bronze.
• Sean Plastow, male softball: silver
• Paige Kremer, female swimming: gold – 100m free, 50m free, 400m free relay, 4x50m free relay and 200m free; silver – 4x200m free relay, 200m medley relay and 4x100m medley relay; bronze – 200m back and 200m IM.
• Mackenzie Lubberding, male swimming: gold – 100m breast; silver – 200m breast, 200m medley relay and 4x100m medley relay.
• Emily Flowers, female swimming: gold – 400m free relay and 4x50m free relay; silver – 4x200m free relay.
The Alberta contingent of 432 members combined to win the most medals in team history at the games. They finished the games with 224 — 53 gold, 91 silver and 80 bronze — for 187 trophy points. Trophy points were awarded based on the performance of all athletes to determine the winner of the Games Trophy. British Columbia claimed top spot with 253 medals and 213 trophy points.
Five bantam AAA St. Albert Cardinals played in the Alberta Zone Championship last weekend in Red Deer.
The Parkland Zone 5 lineup featured Mat Brisson, Aaron Larose, Austin Watamaniuk, Cam Mazur and Matt Quartel of the Cardinals.
Parkland went undefeated in the round robin and semifinal play for a date in the final against Zone 2 from the Okotoks-Olds-Drumheller region. In the 7-6 loss, Larose drew the start and threw 100 pitches while giving up three runs over 5-2/3 innings. It was 3-3 after six, when Zone 5 scored three times in the top of the seventh. Zone 2 replied with four runs in the bottom half of the inning to win the game.
The zone championship is held every other year when there is no Alberta Summer Games.
Meanwhile, Larose and Brisson were coming off a gold medal-winning performance with Team Alberta at the Western Canada Summer Games in Kamloops. The team of 14- and 15-year-olds finished first in the round robin at 5-1 and in the final beat British Columbia 6-4 after falling behind early. Brisson scored the go-ahead run in the sixth on a single by Matt Lloyd of Okotoks. Nolan Bumstead from Calgary pitched a complete game for the win.
Alberta also downed B.C. 9-7 in game six. On the mound, Brisson closed out the game with no hits, no runs and one walk in 2-2/3 innings.
In the first game, Larose pitched three shutout innings in the 7-4 win against Manitoba. He also started at third base in game six.
In the second game against Manitoba, Alberta battled back from a 7-0 deficit after three innings to win 11-10 as Brisson scored the deciding run.
Alberta’s only loss was 6-4 against B.C. in game two.
The St. Albert Senior Cardinals ended their season on a losing note at the Alberta West Central Baseball Association tournament last weekend at Legion Memorial Park and Footz Field in Edmonton.
The Cardinals fell 8-5 to the Bardo Athletics in the 30-plus division B final.
In the semifinals, the Cardinals lost 11-1 to the Spruce Grove Eagles.
The Eagles went on to crush the Cadogan Nighthawks 15-1 in the A final.
Paige Wakefield of St. Albert contributed to Team Alberta’s bronze-medal showing at the recent Baseball Canada senior women invitational (open age group) championship in North York, Ont.
Wakefield, 19, was Alberta’s player of the game in the 19-2 thrashing of Nova Scotia in the round robin. The starting pitcher gave up two earned runs on three hits. She struck out three and walked two in four innings of work.
At the plate, Wakefield batted 1-for-8, with one run scored and three walks, in three games in her sixth consecutive trip to nationals.
Alberta defeated British Columbia 13-3 in the bronze playoff to finish 4-2 at the six-team tournament.
The 16-player Alberta roster included seven from Saskatchewan and one from Prince George, B.C. The head coach was St. Albert minor baseball product Paul Gerlach.
