St. Albert and area athletes reached their peak as medal winners at the Alberta Winter Games last weekend in Banff and Canmore.
Athletes between the ages of 11 and 17 competed in 19 different sports at the winter games.
Local medallists for Zone 5 (Black Gold/Yellowhead) are as follows:
Calahoo
Jayme Doyle and Ireland Perrott: silver in female hockey.
Dagen Quintal: silver in boxing 15-16 junior C 67 kilograms.
Georgia Lee Lamoureux: bronze in Alpine skiing U14 female dual slalom team event.
Sturgeon County
Alexandra Gagnon: gold in judo female plus-48 kg.
Nicholas Gagnon: gold in judo male under-40 kg.
Kyle Lawrence: gold in peewee hockey.
Miranda Gaudet and Madison McCoy: silver in female hockey.
St. Albert
Kye Buchanan, Kyle Fulton, Kyle Gilowski, Brady Nicholas and Justin MacDonald: gold in peewee hockey.
Matej Pederson: gold in speed skating 11-12 male individual.
Sophie Lalor, Sarah Passek and Hannah Clark: silver in female hockey.
Kimberly McLaughlin: silver in badminton mixed doubles.
Madeline Lovsin: silver in wrestling female 51 kg.
Jennessa Carter: bronze in wrestling female 70 kg.
Mckenna Marthiensen: bronze in wrestling female 60 kg.
Mia Cowper: bronze in cross-country skiing 11-12 mini-midget mixed relay.
Sasha Tanasiuk: bronze in cross-country skiing 13-14 midget male relay.
Ben Manchester: bronze in wrestling male 76 kg.
Visit www.stalbertgazette.com for the Zone 5 peewee hockey medal picture of the six St. Albert and area players.
Results are online at www.albertagames.com.
The annual Provincial Junior Olympics wrestling championships pound the mat Saturday at Vincent J. Maloney School.
The elementary students’ competition starts at 9 a.m., followed by the junior and senior female junior high wrestlers at 11 a.m. and the junior and senior male junior high grapplers at 1:30 p.m. Admission is free.
Four mats will be used with one or more officials at each mat.
The meet should wrap up around 4 p.m.
The registration deadline is Wednesday night. Organizers are expecting approximately 350 wrestlers.
Local representation includes the Lorne Akins Crush coached by Craig Baba and the VJM Marauders, a first-year wrestling club coached by Gary Brown.
Last year at provincials in Hinton the Crushers were represented by 22 wrestlers and 14 returned home with medals – three gold, six silver and five bronze.
In the team events the Crushers won silver in junior female and senior female and bronze in senior male.
The longest running junior high sports program in St. Albert is celebrating its 36th year at Lorne Akins.
The St. Albert Skyhawks junior women’s basketball team shoots for the hoop Thursday at the Tri-Prov tournament at Harry Ainlay High School.
Game time is 3 p.m. against the Bishop Carroll Cardinals of Calgary.
A win would send the Skyhawks into Friday’s 5 p.m. semifinal against the Cardston Cougars or Jasper Place Rebels.
A loss would drop the two-time defending metro Edmonton premier (now division one) junior champions into Friday’s 9 a.m. consolation match.
Saturday the consolation final is 9 a.m., the third-place game is 1 p.m. and the final is 5 p.m.
Visit http://triprov.ainlay.ca/ for draw times and results.
The Skyhawks have won all three tournaments entered this season.
In league play last week the Skyhawks (6-1) suffered their first loss, 54-52 to the host Harry Ainlay Titans (5-1).
The Skyhawks ran out of gas in the second half with only seven players available because three were participating in the school’s New Orleans mission.
Abby Schneider led the Skyhawks in scoring with 18 points.
In tournament action the Skyhawks beat the Titans in the St. Albert Catholic High School final and in the semifinals at the 32nd REB Invitational at Jasper Place High School.
The Skyhawks, Titans, Strathcona Lords (6-0) and Leduc Tigers (5-1) are battling for top spot in the metro division one standings.
Tuesday the Skyhawks played the winless Bev Facey Falcons in Sherwood Park but the score was unavailable at press time.
Tonight the Skyhawks host Jasper Place (2-3) at 6:30 p.m.
Marc Kennedy of St. Albert was denied a sixth trip to the Brier with the Kevin Martin rink in Sunday’s final at the Boston Pizza Cup provincial championship in Lacombe.
In the 10th end, Martin was unsuccessful with a raise takeout as Kevin Koe stole one to clinch the 7-5 win and a berth at the March 1 to 9 Brier in Kamloops.
It also marked the first time since the current format was established in 2008 that the provincial champion didn’t win the A final and Page playoff A-B game to finish 5-0 in the 12-team, triple-knockout spiel.
Martin, third Dave Nedohin, Kennedy at second and lead Ben Hebert led 4-1 after four ends, but Koe scrambled back into contention with three in five after Martin’s double takeout with heat didn’t go according to plan.
Martin counted one in six and after blanking seven Koe scored a deuce in eight. Down by one, Martin blanked the ninth end.
Koe lost the 2013 and 2011 finals to Martin, but won the 2010 provincials when Martin represented Canada at the Vancouver Olympics and didn’t compete at the Boston Pizza Cup. Koe, the 2012 provincial champion, celebrated a Brier and world championship victory in 2010 with Jamie King of St. Albert as the team’s alternate.
Koe, third Pat Simmons, second Carter Rycroft and lead Nolan Thiessen finished 6-2 at provincials after starting 1-2 to drop into the C bracket.
At provincials, King’s St. Albert rink of Blake MacDonald, Scott Pfeifer and Jeff Erickson lost their last two games by scores of 7-5 to Matt Blandford, the third-place finisher, in the B semifinals and 11-6 in nine ends to Rob Schlender in the C event after Thursday’s A final 7-3 setback to Martin in seven ends.
The Wade White rink, with Dan Holowaychuk of St. Albert at second, doubled Koe 12-6 in nine ends in Koe’s first game at provincials, en route to a 3-3 record.
Meanwhile, White’s senior team of third Dean Ross, Holowaychuk and lead George Parsons are curling at the 50-plus provincials, starting today in Calgary.
Last year White, third Doug McLennan, Holowaychuk and Parsons won provincials and were the bronze medallists at nationals.
