EDMONTON — RDC’s Devin Woodland turned in an outstanding race to capture silver in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference cross-country running championships Saturday.
Woodland finished the eight-kilometre race in 27 minutes 10 seconds, which was 31 seconds faster than the time he turned in over the same course three weeks ago. Lethbridge College’s Edwin Kaitany, who is the latest in a long line of runners from Kenya to compete for the Kodiaks, won the title in 26:23.
Woodland defeated SAIT’s Kenton Sportak by three seconds.
“It was no surprise to see Edwin win as he won all four previous ACAC Grand Prix races this year,” said RDC coach Brian Stackhouse. “It was a real battle with Sportak, who is a strong 800-metre runner and has a strong kick. To win the silver Devin pushed the pace with about two-kilometres to go to open up a large enough gap that Sportak couldn’t close it.
“It certainly was an exciting finish and all three medalists deserved credit for an excellent and courageous race.”
Kaitany won the Grand Prix title with Woodland second, Alex Harding of Lethbridge third and Sportak fourth.
Jordanna Cota had her best race of the season, finishing eighth in the women’s 5km run in a time of 20:37, which was 26 seconds faster than her time three weeks before.
“All the best runners compete in the ACAC championship and it’s impressive to see Jordanna finish in the top 10,” said Stackhouse.
Vanessa Trofimenkoff off Grant MacEwan finished first in a photo finish with Jamie Wigmore of Grande Prairie. Both finished at 19:14 with Lesley Koopman of Grant MacEwan at 19:29.
Trofimenkoff was first in the Grand Prix standings with Cota seventh.
Noah Arychuk was 16th for RDC in the men’s race at 30:22 with Tyler Nelson 42nd at 34 minutes and Kevin Buckel 65th at 41:52. Nelson was 1:33 faster than his time three weeks prior.
The RDC men finished sixth with Grant MacEwan first with SAIT second and Lethbridge third.
Samantha Debree placed 26th and Emily Maplethorpe 27th at 22:50 and 22:56. Laura Friesen came in at 23 minutes for 30th while Robyn Hebert (23:54) was 43rd, Catherine Alcorn (24:21) 47th, Anna Duda (24:21) 48th, Sidney Moss (24:36) 52nd and Nicole Willson (25:36) 63rd.
SAIT won the team title with Lethbridge second and Grande Prairie third. RDC was fifth.
RDC will compete at the Canadian finals, Nov. 9 in Toronto.
Basketball Kings 83 Ooks 77
Despite playing their second game in as many days and travelling from Red Deer to Fort McMurray and back to Edmonton, the RDC Kings turned in a solid two-way performance to down the NAIT Ooks 83-77 in ACAC Men’s Basketball League action Saturday.
“It was a hard-fought game and the second one of the weekend,” said Kings head coach Clayton Pottinger. “Both of our opponents played just one game and only had to concentrate on us, plus we did all the travelling. But it was two gutsy performances and two wins.”
The Kings ran their record to 3-0.
Matt Johnson led the Kings with 14 points while Mari Peoples-Wong added 13, Clay Crelin 12 and Brian Prenoslo 11.
Ooks 80 Queens 46
The Queens didn’t have as much success as they looked tired and couldn’t handle the Ooks constant pressure.
“They pressed the whole game and we had 40 turnovers, plus gave up 20 offensive rebounds,” said Queens head coach Mike Woollard, whose squad sits at 1-2.
Mozanga Ekwalanga and Desirae Paterson had 10 points each for RDC while Jessica Foley added seven. Kaitlin Bracho had seven rebounds and Sarah Williamson six.
RDC opens their home schedule Friday against Olds.
Griffins 3 Hockey Queens 1
The RDC Queens ran into penalty trouble and it cost them in a 3-1 loss to the Grant MacEwan University Griffins in ACAC Women’s Hockey League play in Edmonton Saturday.
“We took a bunch of lazy penalties and they came back to bite us,” said Queens head coach Bob Rutz. “We were good five-on-five, but we also didn’t convert when we had the chances either. It was one of those nights.”
Laura Salomons opened the scoring for the Queens at 6:15 of the first period while on the power play, but then the Griffins scored three times with the man advantage — Sasha Lutz and Kailey Curran in the first period and Sydney Hawkeswood in the second.
The Queens finished with 37 shots on Brenna McNulty while Moriah Andrews faced 36 in the RDC goal.
Queens return to action Thursday when they host the NAIT Ooks at 7 p.m.