Sports Extra

The St. Albert Royals, the top team in the Rural & Edmonton Midget 15 AA Hockey League, are the flag bearers at the opening ceremonies for tonight’s finale at the Red Bull Crashed Ice in Edmonton.

Gates open at 4 p.m. and the action starts at 7 p.m.

Thursday the Royals tested out the custom-built track that starts on the roof of the Shaw Conference Centre and winds through nine corridors down 415 metres of scaffolding into the river valley’s Louis McKinney Riverfront Park. The vertical drop is 45 metres and top speed on the artificial ice is 55 km/h.

The event is free for all ages.

There is no public parking on-site or at the Shaw Conference Centre.

Visit www.redbullcrashedice.com for more information.

Marc Kennedy of St. Albert was an all-star selection for the sixth time at the Tim Hortons Brier.

Kennedy, 33, was named the second-team all-star at third with the Alberta champion Kevin Koe rink at the recent Brier in Calgary.

Kennedy was joined by teammates Brent Laing at second and Ben Hebert at lead on the second all-star team.

As the second for the Kevin Martin rink, Kennedy was a first team all-star selection in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2011 and a second-team all-star in 2013.

Members of the Canadian Curling Reporters selected the all-star teams.

The Koe foursome finished tied for fifth at 6-5.

St. Albert swimmers Mackenzie Flowers and Daniel Gerlach made a big splash at the Alberta Age Group Championships last weekend in Calgary.

The Olympian Swim Club athletes were multiple medal winners in the U15 boys’ division.

Flowers was the fastest racer in the 100-metre free, 100m fly, 50m free, 50m fly, 100m IM and 50m back.

His time of 23.52 seconds in the 50m free broke the provincial record that stood since 1991.

Flowers was also the runner-up in the 200m free.

Gerlach added to the U15 medal haul by placing first in the 100m back and third in the 100m fly, in addition to five top-10 finishes in the finals.

Flowers and Gerlach joined Olympian relay teammates’ Colin McCann Stephens and Jack Forest in winning the 4x50 free, 4x100 free and 4x50 medley events.

The Paul Kane High School students are strong hopefuls to represent Team Alberta at the Western Canada Summer Games in August at Fort McMurray.

In the girls’ 11-12 division, Amelia Putkaradze was the top competitor in the 100m back, placed second in the 50m free and finished third in the 4x100 free relay with Raj Ahluwalia-Pullam of St. Albert and teammates’ Pilar McCann and Erin Shewchuk.

The girls also wound up fourth in the 4x50 free.

The Surge won the right to represent the St. Albert Ringette Association at the tween U14B provincials next weekend after defeating the Fury in Monday’s deciding game in the tournament qualifier.

The Surge won 4-1 in a back-and-forth affair in front of a large contingent of spectators at Kinex Arena.

The best-of-three series started with a 3-1 Surge victory and the Fury won game two 4-1.

At the 12-team provincials in St. Albert the Surge are in pool B with the Lethbridge Force and Drayton Valley Lightning.

The South Calgary Lightning, Fort Saskatchewan Ice Squad and Spruce Grove Rage are in pool A, the Spruce Grove Talons, Strathmore Ice Rebels and Cochrane Rockies form pool C and the Sherwood Park Riot, Calgary Northwest BADDitude and Calgary Northwest Adrenaline are competing in pool D.

Fort Saskatchewan, a provincial medal favourite, edged the Surge 3-2 in the Cochrane tournament final.

Visit www.ringettealberta.com or www.stalbertringette.com for the 28-game provincial schedule.

The date for the third annual Donnie MAC Cup has been confirmed for April 11 at the Akinsdale and Kinex arenas.

The afternoon event features simultaneous games involving 64 players on Team MAC Insurance, Team MACSON, Team Remax Jay Herrick/Standard General and Team MAC Registries.

The teams play each other once in the round-robin goals for and against format.

The majority of the players are St. Albert Minor Hockey Association alumni.

Raffle tickets can be purchased at the event to win multiple donated items.

Balloon twisters and face painters will also be in attendance.

The fundraiser honours the memory of Don MacMillan, a St. Albert resident who died of lung cancer on March 19, 2011 at age 61.

So far the Donnie MAC Cup has raised almost $30,000 in the fight against lung cancer.

Donations can be made to [email protected] and they can also be dropped off at the event and at MAC Insurance at #8, 44 St. Thomas Street in St. Albert and MAC Registries at 14228 Stony Plain Road.

Online donations are also accepted through the Donnie MAC Cup link at www.lungcancercanada.ca.

For more information, contact Derek MacMillan at 780-458-1441.