The St. Albert Mission tween, junior and belle teams are skating for provincial medals this weekend at the Ringette Alberta AA championships in Calgary.
The U14AA provincials consist of eight teams and the top four advance to westerns, March 23 to 25 in Winnipeg.
The Mission tweens are grouped in pool A with Calgary White, Central Alberta Sting and Calgary Blue.
The Mission are 26-6-6 overall going into provincials.
Last year the Mission ended up fifth at provincials while going 16-17-5 overall on the season.
All eight teams at the U16AA provincials qualify for nationals, March 26 to April 1 in Leduc.
The Mission juniors have pool B matches scheduled against Calgary Impact, Zone 2 and Sherwood Park Power.
The Mission's overall record is 26-18-3.
Last year the Mission placed fourth at provincials and at nationals in London, Ont., finished 11th out of 20 teams for third among the six Alberta teams in the junior AA division.
The U19AA provincial tournament is a five-team round robin to determine the playoff pairings in the gold and bronze finals.
The Mission belles play Calgary, Zone 5 Grit, Central Alberta Sting and Edmonton Elite and every team receives a berth at nationals in Leduc.
The Mission are 12-17-3 on the eve of provincials
Last year the Mission placed 18th at nationals as the last of six Alberta reps in the 20-team draw. The belles were seeded sixth out of the Alberta teams at nationals.
St. Albert Mustangs Track & Field Club athletes turned in medal-winning performances at the Alberta Indoor Games last weekend at the Butterdome.
Podium results are as follows.
Dillon Sharpe, U18 men: first in 300 metres (36.79 seconds) and second in 60m (7.38).
Jacob Wessel, midget men: second in pentathlon (2,123 points).
Christina Hollingsworth, peewee girls: second in shot put (7.5m) and triathlon.
Barrett Groves, bantam girls: third in high jump (1.30m).
Ryan Lofstrom, peewee boys: third in 60m (9.62).
Bantam boys' relay team of Lofstrom, Noah Jeske, Matteo Niebach-Pare, Oakley Paradis: third in 4x100 and sprint medley.
The previous weekend, Ryder Horton and Emma Murchison competed at the 39th annual Simplot Games, North America's premier indoor high school track and field event, at Idaho State University's Holt Arena.
Horton finished fifth in the men's 800m (1:56.50) and Murchison placed ninth in the women's 800m (2:22.23).
Both athletes were coming off top-three showings at the Feb. 11-12 Alberta Golden Bear Challenge. Horton was the men's U18 600m winner (1:22.26) and Murchison was third in the women's U18 600m (1:40.41).
Up next for the Mustangs is the Alberta Indoor Championships next weekend at the Butterdome.
Meanwhile, registration for the outdoor season is March 14 at Richard S. Fowler School from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Visit www.mustangstrackclub.com for details.
The first of five open tryout dates for the Crude Lacrosse Club of St. Albert starts Match 1 at 9:30 p.m. at Servus Credit Union Place.
All non-drafted graduating midgets, free agents, Crude draftees and returning players are eligible to attend the junior B Tier I tryouts.
Players released after the fifth tryout session March 19 are free agents and can tryout with other junior B teams.
Floor dates for the invitational (round two) camp are March 25-26.
For more information, contact head coach Terry Dokken at [email protected] or registrar Kevin Chysyk at [email protected].
The team's website is www.crudelax.ca.
Last year the Crude finished fifth out of six north division teams at 3-17 (142 GF/266 GA) in the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League.
