Sjolie leads Nauticals
CALGARY — Tasheena Sjolie led the Sylvan Lake Nauticals Swim Club at the Alberta age group provincial championships during the weekend.
The 12-year-old finished with two silver and a bronze and earned a national qualifying time in the 200-metre butterfly, while finishing second.
She was also second in the 100m butterfly and third by eight-100ths of a second in the 50m butterfly.
Sjolie finished in the top eight in all eight of her swims and was recognized by Swim Alberta as being one of the top 25 swimmers in the province.
She also received an invitation to train in Edmonton and compete in the Swim Alberta North-South dual meet.
Meanwhile Tristan Arraial, 9, received a certificate for being the fastest swimmer in the 100m butterfly in the nine-year-old group.
Marshal Parker, 13, Gillian Arraial, 11, Kay Burns, 12, and Shelbey Wella, 12, also competed in the meet.
Junior B final starts Wednesday
The Stettler Lightning and Cochrane Generals will open the best-of-three Heritage Junior B Hockey League final Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. in Cochrane.
The second game will be played Friday in Stettler, with a 7:30 p.m. start, and a third contest, if required, will go Sunday at Cochrane (time to be announced).
Both teams will advance to the 2009 provincial junior B championship April 2-5 at Cold Lake.
Chiefs put clamps on Drayton Valley
The Red Deer KFC Chiefs put the clamps on Drayton Valley en route to sweeping the North Central Hockey Association Tier 1 atom championship.
The Chiefs posted back-to-back 4-0 victories in the best-of-three final and recorded four shutouts in their six playoff games.
Corrections
• It was incorrectly reported in Monday’s Advocate that netminder Jessica Amendt played every game for the Red Deer Sutter Fund Chiefs in the provincial midget A girls’ hockey championship at Edmonton.
Tournament statistics showed Amendt going the distance for the Chiefs, when in fact she and Nora Drechsler split goaltending duties for the silver medallists.
• Mackenzie Crozman was a double medalist for the Red Deer Exelta Gymnastics Club at the Cactus Classic tumbling and trampoline meet in Edmonton during the weekend.
Crozman captured silver in the provincial A trampoline and bronze in the double-mini trampoline.
Queens forward named Rookie of Year
RDC Queens outstanding forward Karla Bourke has been named the Alberta Colleges Women’s Hockey League rookie of the year.
Bourke, a native of Onoway, finished third in league scoring with 11 goals and 14 assists and was named to the league’s first all-star team. Bourke’s offensive ability showed on the power play as the Queens finished first in the league with a 19.3 per cent rating. Meanwhile, Melody Howard of the MacEwan Griffins was selected as player of the year. She was a first-team all-star and led the Griffins in scoring with nine goals and 11 assists. Lacey Hollington of NAIT was named the league’s scholastic player of the year. She scored a 3.9 grade-point average in power engineering technology.
Saints push Grizzlys to brink
OLDS — The Olds Grizzlys are on the brink of Alberta Junior Hockey League playoff elimination.
Travis Rolheiser made 35 saves Monday as the Spruce Grove Saints downed the Grizzlys 4-1 to take a commanding 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven semifinal which continues tonight at the Sports Complex with a 7:30 p.m. start.
Saints forward Curt Morrison scored the only goal of the first period before 767 fans, and Brett Switzer and Nate Fleming notched unanswered second-period goals for the visitors.
Jordan Draper upped the count to 4-0 with an early third-period marker before Olds defenceman Ryan Cornforth scored on a power play four minutes later.
Marc Boulanger made 34 saves for the Grizzlys, who need a victory tonight to send the series back to Spruce Grove for a fifth game Thursday.
If the Grizzlys can win tonight and then pull out a victory on the road Thursday, they’ll host Game 6 Saturday at 7:30 p.m. A seventh game, if needed, would be played next Monday at Spruce Grove.
In the other AJHL semifinal, the host Grande Prairie Storm edged the Brooks Bandits 3-2 Monday to grab a 2-0 series lead. Game 3 is Wednesday in Brooks.
Cam Ward named NHL first star of the week
NEW YORK — Carolina Hurricanes goaltender Cam Ward was named the National Hockey League’s first star of the week Monday.
The former Red Deer Rebels star posted a 3-0-0 record with a 2.33 goals-against average and .935 save percentage last week.
Pittsburgh Penguins centre Evgeni Malkin was named second star and Phoenix Coyotes right-winger Shane Doan was the third star.
Malkin led all players with eight points (three goals, five assists) in three games. He tied a career high with five points in a 6-2 win over Atlanta last Tuesday.
Doan had seven points (3-4) in four games last week.
Minor soccer
The Red Deer Renegades finished third in the provincial under-18 boys’ soccer championship during the weekend, defeating Battle River 4-3 in the bronze-medal match.
The Renegades posted respective 6-1 and 6-3 victories over Calgary United and Calgary Southwest United, before falling 5-2 to Chinook in a semifinal.
• At the provincial under-12 girls’ tournament, the Renegades came up just short in their bronze-medal game with an Edmonton team, losing 5-4. Earlier, the Red Deer squad beat Sherwood Park 2-1 and dropped a 5-1 decision to eventual champion Edmonton Inter.
• The Renegades under-10 to under-12 girls won the fair play award at provincials, and also emerged victorious in a consolation game, 5-4 over an Edmonton side.
Meanwhile, the Renegades under-16 girls were also provincial fair play winners. The Red Deer team beat Sherwood Park 7-0 in a consolation game.
Senior Bowl goes Wednesday
Central Alberta High School Girls’ Basketball League champion Wetaskiwin Sabres will have four players, along with head coach Chuck Hebert, involved in the annual 3A/4A Senior Bowl at RDC Wednesday.
Rachel Christensen, Shea Greene, Soraya Elwenni and Alyssa Greene will compete for the Light team.
The girls contest will tip off at 6 p.m. with the boys to follow.
Other members of the Light squad are Laura Gosselin, Sam Fraser, Paola Viveros and Marli Hadden of Notre Dame, Lacey Stewart, Chantel Heier, Joy Corpataux and Carly Anderson of Stettler and Caitlin Keliher, Shayna McCormick and Julie Knip of Lacombe.
The Lindsay Thurber Raiders will have three players — Courtney Symes, Kayla Newans and Gillian Magnusson — along with coach Kathy Lalor on the Dark squad.
Others are Michelle Fynn and Kelsey Syrnyk of Camrose, Fiona Rumohr, Melody McKay, Carla Graham and Tayler Letwin of Ponoka, Ashley Bignold, Baujke Buruma and Sydni Seibel of Ponoka and Krystal Reitsma, Kayla Land and Katie Ziegler of West Central of Rocky Mountain House.
The league champion LTCHS Raiders have two players — Sharmarke Salad and Remar Villanueva — and head coach Dwayne Lalor on the boys’ Dark team.
The Camrose Trojans and Lacombe Rams both have four players on the team. Dan Portas, Landon Miller, Jordan Baier and Mike Choi represent Camrose and Jeff Anderson, Tyler Suggett, Chris Copp and Jesse Cameron from Lacombe. Other members of the Dark team are Matthew Currie, Tyson Klein and Michael Surgenor of Ponoka and Rob Swainson and Ben Burbridge of Sylvan Lake.
The Wetaskiwin Sabres have five players — David Shantz, Garrett Luebke, Andrew Greenidge, Jaman Moussa and Mark Reyes — on the boys’ Light squad, which is coached by Stef Labrecque of Notre Dame.
Labrecque will be joined by Hayden Meador, Jesse Cheema, Landon Wesley and Eric deWit from his squad.
Others om the Light team are Jason McCaw, Aaron Helmer and Jesse Craig of West Central and David King, Ryan Staal and Garret Primrose of Stettler.
