The St. Albert Cardinals have a tradition to uphold at the Baseball Alberta midget AAA Tier I championship this weekend in Okotoks.
The Cardinals qualified for the gold-medal game in the last three provincials as the 2013 finalists and U18 Western Canada gold medallists, 2014 champions and U18 Baseball Canada silver medallists and 2015 finalists and silver medallists at westerns.
Friday in the pool B opener, the Cardinals played the Parkland Twins but the score was unavailable at press time.
Today’s games are against SEEBA #1 at 9 a.m. and East Central Bulls at 3 p.m.
Pool A features Okotoks Dawgs Red, Calgary Rockies, Calgary Dino’s Black and Sherwood Park Athletics.
If there are no tiebreakers, Sunday’s semifinals are 9 a.m. and 12 p.m. and the final is 3 p.m.
The winner advances to the U18 Baseball Canada championship, Aug. 18 to 22 in Sherbrooke, Que. and the runner-up heads to westerns, Aug. 12 to 14 in Sherwood Park.
Visit www.baseballalberta.com or the Cardinals’ team website at www.stalbertbaseball.com for the schedule and results.
The provincial draw features the top eight finishers in the Norwest league: Dawgs Red (33-5), Parkland (28-6), SEEBA #1 (24-7), Rockies (25-14), Cardinals (22-15), Dino’s Black (17-12), Athletics (18-16) and East Central (18-16).
The Cardinals were 30-24-2 overall on the eve of provincials.
The first pitch for the St. Albert Angels at the U18 Western Canadian Softball Championship goes Thursday in Winnipeg.
The tournament draw consists of the Manitoba Angels (MB #2), Moose Jaw Ice (SK #1), Red Deer Rage (AB #1), Regina Raiders (SK #2), Richmond Islanders (B.C.), South Interlake Phillies (host), Winnipeg Lightning (MB #1) and the Angels (AB #2).
Visit www.westerncanadasoftball.pointstreaksites.com for the schedule and results.
The Angels were silver medallists at the recent U18B provincials after winning the Girls Prairie League Softball B division championship last month.
Meanwhile, at the recent provincials in Calahoo, the U12A Angels won a thriller against Calgary Adrenaline in the final and the U12B Angels beat the Red Deer Rage by one run for bronze.
Quinn Olson of St. Albert was on fire racing his nitro Harley at the Summer Nationals last weekend in Rimbey.
Olson won his second Hawaya Racing Products Pro Dragster trophy in the Canadian Motorcycle Drag Racing Association with a time of 7.68 seconds in the final elimination round at the Central Alberta Raceways facility.
The runner-up was Al Miles of Edmonton at 7.989 seconds.
It also marked the second time Olson finished ahead of Miles of Edmonton for CMDRA honours. Last month Olson beat out Miles at the Spring Nationals, the CMDRA Points Series opener in Medicine Hat. Olson’s time was 7.63.
Olson’s personal best on the Old’s Kool Racing sponsored machine is 7.41.
This is Olson’s second year with a license on nitro Harleys.
The next CMDRA event is the Oil City Nationals on Aug. 7 at Castrol Raceway.
Ryder Horton of the St. Albert Mustangs is on track for a fast finish at the Canadian Legion Youth Track & Field Championships.
Horton qualified for the provincial Legion team in the 800 metres in the U16 division with a time of 1:56.32.
Last year Horton placed first in the U16 800m at 1:56.30.
Legion nationals start Friday in Sainte-Therese/Blainville, Que.
This is the third year with the Mustangs for the Ardrossan student.
Horton, Emma Murchison, Madelyn Curle and Matthew Harrison are also representing Alberta at the Tri-Province/Western Canada Challenge meet for midget and youth athletes this weekend in Regina.
Murchison, Curle, Harrison, Meghan Breen, Jackson Cadger and Dillon Sharpe were also successful in qualifying for the recent Alberta Summer Games in Leduc.
Students from the Hayabusa Training Centre made an impact at the recent American National Championships in Las Vegas.
Nine adults competed at the Jiu-Jitsu GI and NO-GI IBJJF (International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation) Championships as part of the UFC fight week and for the first time the mixed martial arts facility in Campbell Business Park sent a group of youths to the Kids Jiu-Jitsu IBJJF Championships.
Overall, several students were crowned American National Champions and 22 medals were awarded to the following individuals.
Aidan Gresik, 10, grey belt/super heavy: BJJ silver.
Seth Norbert, 14, grey belt/light: BJJ bronze.
Brett Dudar, 13, grey/belt/heavy: BJJ gold.
Noah Sexsmith, 14, grey belt/heavy: BJJ bronze.
Sasha Tanasiuk, 15, grey belt/ultra heavy: BJJ gold.
Zachary Pye, blue belt/light: NO-GI bronze.
Kb Bhullar, blue belt/heavy: NO-GI silver
Nancy Ma, blue belt/feather: NO-GI silver; blue/adult/light feather: BJJ gold.
Gregory Ricker, blue belt/med heavy: NO-GI gold, BJJ gold, BJJ open weight gold.
Shaun Donald Holstrom, purple belt/med heavy: NO-GI bronze; purple/master 6/med heavy: BJJ Gold, BJJ open weight bronze.
Tyler Edworthy, brown belt/ultra heavy: NO-GI silver BJJ silver, BJJ open weight gold.
Luke Harris, black belt/ultra heavy: NO-GI gold, NO-GI open weight gold, BJJ gold, BJJ open weight bronze.
