Strathmore athletes conquer Winter Games

Times Reporter   

 

Eight zones competed in 20 different sports – ranging from squash to hockey to boxing – during the Alberta Winter Games for youth ages 11-17. 

Twenty-two hundred participants traveled to Canmore and Banff from Feb. 6-9 to show off their skills. 

For Zone 2 Big Country, Strathmore was well represented.

Carter Tongs, Caleb Funk and the Zone 2 volleyball boys finished in sixth place with a 3-3 record. 

Also on the court was Anika Solomon, who’s only been playing club volleyball for two years; her squad finished seventh, winning two but losing four.

“It wasn’t too well but we played our hardest,” Solomon said. “It was a lot of good competition because it’s the best people in all the different places in the province. I don’t think we had any super big expectations. We were definitely hoping to place better, but things happen.”

Zone 2’s girls hockey team went undefeated in all five games; this included the 4-0 gold medal victory against Yellowhead. Erin Fargey played two of the team’s games in goal; Hailey McCallum scored five goals and two assists – seven points over four days.

“Some days you would feel really tired, but once you got to game time, you would just push through. I’d get all pumped up,” McCallum said. “I thought I had a pretty successful tournament myself, and as a team we played really good.”

From the Alberta Winter Games, 60 players will be contacted to try out for Team Alberta’s U-16 and U-18 teams – McCallum has high hopes for this.

Zone 2’s ringette ladies finished fifth, losing two and tying once. Most of their pool had AA players, making it difficult to finish higher.

“I thought it was really good. It was cool to see how everyone from our zone came together, because we’d only played about four games before that,” said Shae Lane. “It’s tough going against teams that have played together before.”

Lane’s teammate on the U19B Strathmore Ice team, Hannah Olson, found her teammates to be a little younger.

“It wasn’t really an advantage, but it wasn’t a disadvantage either,” Olson said about being one of the older players. “It was kind of neat to be one of the older ones on the team, with a little more experience.”

Teammate for Zone 2, Katie Edelmann, had attended the event before.

“It was still really different with different girls,” she said.

Two of Edelmann’s teammates on the Strathmore Ice’s U16 squad, Darcie Weir and Lauryn Eitzen, played for Zone 2 as well.

Joining Zone 2 in ringette were Taneil Kalbhen and Morgan Elder of Rockyford. Ryan Eamon of Rockyford also finished second for Zone Big Country in boxing’s Junior C category.

Calgary’s Zone 3 took home first place with the most total medal points, however, Zone 2 was awarded the Spirit of Sport Cup.