The RDC Kings finished 2-2 at the Rumble in the Rockies volleyball tournament in Cranbrook during the weekend.
The Kings lost to Thompson River University of Kamloops 25-19, 25-17, 21-25, 18-25, 8-15 and the University of Calgary Dinos 21-25, 24-26, 18-25 while beating the College of the Rockies from Cranbrook twice — 25-20, 20-25, 28-26, 25-21 Saturday and 23-25, 28-26, 23-25, 25-15, 15-11 Sunday.
“The universities are a little bit ahead of us at this time, but we played them tough, even the U of C as we battled them for two-and-a-half sets before they pulled away,” said Kings head coach Aaron Schulha. “I saw a lot of good things against both universities and while the matches against the College of the Rockies weren’t as intense, the second one was good in that they pushed us to five sets and we had to stay in it to win.”
The Kings will host their annual Challenge Cup Friday and Saturday.
l The RDC Queens beat Warner Hockey Academy 4-1 Saturday and tied them 2-2 Sunday in exhibition women’s hockey action.
Laura Salomons, Ang Hodgson, Gillian Altheim and Jade Petrie scored Saturday.
The Queens will be in action Saturday as they host SAIT at 5:30 p.m. at the Arena in an exhibition contest.
l The RDC Queens dropped both games in the women’s side of the CIS/ACAC Showcase tournament in Edmonton Saturday — losing 86-59 to NAIT and 77-47 to The Kings University College Eagles.
Amrei Bondlio had nine points against NAIT.
“The scores didn’t show it, but I thought we got better as the weekend went along,” said Queens head coach Mike Woollard. “We used all our players and they played hard. There is some growing pains as we lack experience and a little size, but it’ll come.”
l The RDC ladies team sits in medal contention following the opening day of the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference golf championships in Medicine Hat Sunday.
The Queens are third, back of Grant MacEwan and Medicine Hat and ahead of Olds.
Melissa Koster led the team with a 94 while Rochelle French had 112.
Meanwhile, the men’s team struggled as their leader — Kyle Morrison — needed to use a cart just to get around the course. Morrison injured his knee earlier in the week and is on crutches. But the officials allowed him to use the cart and he shot an 83.
Jeff Northcott led RDC with a 76.
Lethbridge leads heading into the second and final day of the tournament with a 292 score while Grant MacEwan is at 310, Medicine Hat and Olds 326, NAIT 340 and RDC 352.
l Kieran McDonald led the RDC men’s cross-country team at the ACAC Grand Prix No. 4 at Camrose Saturday.
McDonald was fourth overall and second among college runners with a time of 27 minutes 19 seconds in the eight-kilometre race.
Open runners Hosea Kibet Rutto and Willy Kimosop were first and second at 24:55 and 25:48. Kenyan Solomon Ngetich of Lethbridge College was third at 26:44. Jevin Monds, who is also in the open class, was fifth at 27:27 with RDC’s Devin Woodland at 27:36.
Tim Haasdyk of RDC was 77th overall and 53rd among college runners at 38:50 with Shafe Abdulahi 89th and 62nd at 43:19.
Grant MacEwan led the ACAC team standings with 37 points with Lethbridge had 60 and SAIT 72. RDC was seventh at 105.
On the women’s side, open runners took the top three spots with Alexandra Gordichuk of Grant MacEwan fourth and the top college runner with a time of 19:56 in the 5km race. Jessica O’Connell won in 18:19.
Catherine Alcorn led the RDC runners, placing 20th overall and 13th among college runners at 22:48.
Anna Duda was 43rd and 31st at 24:28, Danielle Fandrick 52nd and 40th at 25:187 and Jenna Ronnie 58th and 46th at 25:52. The other RDC runners were Laura Friesen (67th, 54th, 26:32), Sidney Moss (73rd, 60th, 27:01) and Nicole Wagner (82nd, 67th, 29:47).
MacEwan won the team title with 18 points while Lethbridge had 66 and SAIT 67. RDC was seventh at 114.
The final Grand Prix race goes Oct, 13 at NAIT with the ACAC final Oct, 27 at Camrose. The Canadian finals are Nov. 10 in Montreal. Woodland, McDonald and former RDC star Jodi Sanguin will compete in the Athletics Canada junior and senior cross-country nationals, Nov. 24 in Vancouver.