Posted by Sudbury Northern Life
Countless are the winter weekends where the sheer number of
local sporting events far outnumber the realistic possibilities
of coverage. Thankfully, that's not the case for the bulk of
the Saturdays and Sundays through the summer ... except for
this past weekend. Athletes were kept busy on the football
field (Sudbury Gladiators), in the pool (Jeno Tihanyi swim
meet), on the soccer pitch (Ontario Cup playdowns), on the
track (Legion H meet) as well as on the ball diamonds (Rick
McDonald Memorial Tournament).
Inevitably, some competitions fall between the cracks when it
comes to coverage, but I'll try to get you caught up on what
you might have missed.
The Sudbury Athletic U-15 boys soccer team christened the 2009
season at the James Jerome Complex by welcoming the Markham
Lightning, Whitby Iroquois and Caledon Crusaders to town for
first round U-15 Tier II Ontario Cup action.
The script could not have been written much better for the
Athletic team and fans (save the ongoing goofy weather all
sports were dealing with this weekend). Both the host team and
the Crusaders chalked up back-to-back wins over Markham and
Whitby - and both by identical scores of 2-1 and 6-1. This set
the stage for a final round robin game that saw the combatants
dead even in virtually every respect, as both Sudbury and
Caledon sought to secure a berth in the semi-final match on
Aug. 29 in Scarborough.
Jesse Johnson vaulted the Athletic to a first half lead, only
to see the Crusaders pull even before the half was out. The 1-1
deadlock remained through the entire second half, leaving OSA
officials and teams in a quandary. The rules stipulate that in
the event of a tie, which is maintained right through to goals
for and against, the OSA is to pull a name out of a hat in
order to determine a winner.
Understandably, neither team liked that approach. Fortunately,
all agreed to decide matters on penalty kicks. Thankfully for
Athletic coach Jeff Vaillancourt and company, Johnson scored,
as did teammates Liam Doyle, Emerson Carniel and James
Larocque. Meanwhile, keeper Connor Griffiths came through with
a pair of big-time diving saves. It's onto the final four for
the local lads.
Perhaps not the tense, gut-wrenching excitement of a shootout
final when it came to the District H Legion Track & Field
meet, held Saturday at Confederation Secondary - but some
outstanding local performances, nonetheless. About 250 young
athletes gathered from across northern Ontario.
The Sudbury crew received its most noteworthy showing in the
16-17 age bracket as some familiar names garnered gold. Serena
San Cartier finished first in both the 100-metre and 200-metre
sprints, making up for any disappointment she may have felt
because her specialty event - hurdles - was not being contested
at this meet.
On the road to recovery following a nasty infection sustained
just prior to OFSAA, Ross Proudfoot cruised to victory in both
the 1,500-metre and 3,000-metre races, out-kicking Track North
club mate Jeremy Cooper from Manitoulin Island.
Alannah MacLean crossed the wire first in the 400-metre, while
Zack Caverson equaled that feat in the boys' 14-15
division 1,500-metre race.
Yet another multiple event winner, was Manitoulin Central Grade
6 student Kennedy Lanktree, who picked up a pair of first place
ribbons, capturing the triple jump and 1,500-metre events for
the girls' 12-13 division. She saved her best for two days
later, competing at the same venue on Monday as the Rainbow
Board staged its Champions Meet.
Only two records were set during this year's Rainbow meets -
both courtesy of yet another potential jumping phenom from west
of Sudbury. Lanktree rewrote her own mark in the triple jump,
soaring 8.72 metres. Yet it was her performance in the atom
long jump that had the crowd buzzing in Valley East.
Her jump of 4.38 metres not only broke the previous mark
established by Anne Belland, of Levack, 33 years ago, it also
surpassed Lanktree's nearest competitor by almost a full
metre. Consider the following: just in the process of finishing
Grade 6, Lanktree's leap would have captured gold in both the
midget and junior girls' divisions at the city high school
championships, held last month at Confederation.
In fact, she came just four centimeters shy of equaling the
first place performance of Arianne Morin, of Lively, in the
senior girls' event. No surprise then that the talented youth
is also a huge fan of Caroline Ehrhardt - quadruple OFSAA gold
medalist.
Finally, both the fastball and slo-pitch crews out in Azilda
survived everything Mother Nature could throw at them before
crowning champions at the 10th Annual Rick McDonald Memorial
Tournament held at the ballpark named in his honour. Ageless
chucker "Swede" Dahlvick pitched the JB Red Sox to their
fastball title as the makeshift squad upended the Sagamok Rez
Riders 7-4 in the championship.
In the slo-pitch event, which features strictly law enforcement
personnel, Sudbury OPP reeled off five straight wins, clipping
Team Prevost 11-7 in the final as Joanne Colombe enjoyed a
perfect three for three outing at the plate for the
victors.
Randy Pascal is the voice of Eastlink Sports and the founder of SudburySports.com.
