St. Albert track and field athlete Niki Oudenaarden continued her medal haul for the Calgary Dinos at the U Sports Nationals last weekend in Edmonton.
The U Sports female field athlete of the year was the pentathlon winner with 4,134 points on day one of the competition.
Amelia Auge of Sherbrooke was the runner-up at 3,926.
The Paul Kane High School alumna was the top performer in the high jump at 1.74 metres, shot put at 12.86m and 800m at 2:18.
Oudenaarden also placed sixth in the 60m hurdles at 9.18 seconds and her placing in the long jump event of 5.80m wasn’t available on the competition’s website.
In the open events, Oudenaarden was the high jump silver medallist at 1.73m.
Danielle Delage of Toronto was the winner at 1.76m
Oudenaarden also collected bronze in the 4x400m relay as the second runner with teammates Natalie McDougall, Megan Kretzer and Jenna Westaway with a season-best time of 3:48.26.
The transfer student from the San Diego State Aztecs also placed fourth in long jump at 5.73m and fifth in shot put at 13.45m.
At the Canada West championships in Regina, Oudenaarden was named the conference female field athlete of the year for the second time in three years while sweeping all five pentathlon events for a point total of 4,202.
In the open events, Oudenaarden was the top high jumper at 1.69m, ran on the Dinos’ winning 4x400 relay team at 3:53.36 and was the runner-up in the long jump at 6.00m and shot put at 13.16m.
Two years ago, the finalist for the 2015 CIS (now U Sports) female field athlete of the year was the pentathlon winner with 4,072 points and was the bronze medallist in shot put in her national university championship debut with the Dinos.
The kinesiology student has one year of U Sports eligibility remaining with the Dinos.
Meanwhile, Rachel Francois of St. Albert was the fourth-fastest runner in the 600m at 1:30.70 for the University of Victoria Vikes.
The four-time CIS All-Canadian and Canada West first team all-star and fifth-year Vike was chasing her fifth national title in the 600m and led the race from the start but was unable to hang on for a podium finish.
The Paul Kane alumna was the Canada West 600m champion at 1:31.18.
François is also a two-time University of Victoria female athlete of the year and the 2012 CIS female rookie of the year.
The Alberta Soccer Association 2017 provincial teams included a pair of St. Albert Impact U15 Tier 1 females.
Anneke Odinga and Skylar Slade-Weinstein are 2003-born players from the 2002 Impact team selected to play for the U14 Alberta north team.
Last year Odinga was a U13 Alberta north team member and Slade-Weinstein was a U14 Alberta north team player.
Also making the Alberta north teams from St. Albert were Isabel Bereziuk in U14 and Turner Mackenzie and Grace Hannaford in U13.
Meanwhile, Ava Bourbonnais and Taylor Blight participated in the Canadian Soccer Association REX program this winter.
They will be returning to the U15 Tier 1 Impact team for the 2017 outdoor season and the first big tournament for the team is the Whitecaps Showcase, April 14 to 16 in Surrey, B.C.
Blight, a goalkeeper, recently attended the CSA's National EXCEL Identification Camp (West) in Burnaby as one of 10 Alberta females among the 25 invitees born in 2001, 2002 and 2003.
Skylar-Weinstein was also invited into the REX program in January.
The 2016-17 REX program ends March 31.
At the national level, St. Albert products’ Brooke Lang and Aymar Sigue were recognized for their abilities on the pitch.
Lang took part in the EXCEL women’s identification camp in Burnaby for players from university, club or regional REX programs.
Lang is a fulltime member of the Alberta FC Edmonton REX program and will be attending the University of Alberta in the fall.
Nicole Panas, a former Impact player who is with the Whitecaps FC female elite program, also participated in the Burnaby camp.
Sigue competed for U20 Canada at the recent CONCACAF championship in Costa Rica and is playing NCAA division one soccer with Penn State University.
The Morinville Composite High School cheer team was Cheerific at the recent competition in Edmonton.
Morinville finished first overall out of seven teams in the high school division one small division category at the Cheerific Western Cheer Challenge and was also awarded the Grand Champion award for achieving the highest score in the 17-team event.
Visit www.stalbertgazette.com to view the team picture.
Meanwhile, the Bellerose Bulldogs placed third in the high school division two category at the True North Cheerleading & Dance Championships last weekend at the Edmonton Expo Centre.
Harry Ainlay, St. Francis Xavier, Edwin Parr of Athabasca and Tommy Douglas Collegiate of Saskatoon also competed in the division.
The Edmonton zone qualifier for provincials for the Bulldogs is Saturday at 4:30 p.m. at Blessed Oscar Romero High School.
The event consists of the level one, level two, co-ed and game day divisions.
Provincials are April 7-8 at Edwin Parr.
