By Larry & Andre Leblanc
Canadian Cross Country Runners
Coach Gerry Holliday has had a very long run this year building up his runners to their full potentials since the summer. It culminated last weekend at the Canadian Cross Country Champions that took place at Mooney’s Bay with its punishing hills near Ottawa. Gerry only had two runners able to make it to the event.
Xavi Mara finished in a slower pace than usual in a huge field of 260 runners. However, Coach Holliday thought it was just, “Excellent, that he even finished as he had 101 degree temperature that morning and could hardly breathe!”
Maren Kasunich had her own challenges, getting tripped on one of the muddy hills but got up to finish 24th! In fact all of the photos posted show dirt badges of honour. Disappointed, because she was in the lead pack, she had the determination to get up and go and her 24th placing allowed her Team Ontario to finish second overall just falling to Team British Columbia.
What a season for Gerry’s kids once again. Great job all! Get those bodies recovered and improve from here, for next year!
Local V-Ball player medals at Provincial Tournament
Mindemoya’s Mya Balfe plays rep volleyball out of Sudbury for the U15 Black Vortex of the Northern Chill Volleyball club. Her team played their first Ontario Volleyball Association Provincial Cup Tournament in Woodbridge on Saturday. They came very close in their games against the teams that took gold and silver, Titans Hera and Durham Attack. Then they met the Durham Rebels and won in two straight sets to capture the bronze!
Mya and the Vortex have three more tournaments in the New Year where they play a variety of teams from across the province which will determine their ranking as they head into the OVA Provincials tournament in April. Great job Mya, all your hard work, paid off!
Bonspiel in honour of Marc Hovingh
The first annual Marc Hovingh Memorial Curling Bonspiel is being hosted at the Little Current Curling Club from December 9-11. At just over two years since the tragic death, in the line of duty of Constable Hovingh co-organizer Kyle Chandler told the Expositor that the event has been an idea for a while but that Covid delayed its inception.
Kyle and Brother, Jordan have teamed up with several partners but the event will focus on the special connection with law enforcement. One unique rule of the event is that each team requires at least one current or retired police officer on their foursome.
The Bonspiel already has 16 teams at the time and is hoping to have 24 in the next couple of weeks. The event proceeds will be going to Manitoulin Family Resources Food Bank in Mindemoya as well as the Wiikwemkoong Food Bank.
For information or to register for the bonspiel, contact: jordanchandler@live.ca.
NOSSA Volleyball deets!
With both Manitoulin Secondary volleyball coaches having busy lives, I wasn’t able to track them down before the press deadline. Here are just a few more stats on the tournaments
The MSS junior boys and coach Andrew Argall completed the round robin with a 2-1 record, beating Espanola and Franco-Cite and losing to L’Horizon in a 3-set match that finished 20-18 in a set to 15! The boys then played L’Horizon in the final and lost 2-0 against some super high quality volleyball for the junior level.
The MSS senior boys, coached by Mike Wesno, followed a strikingly similar path through the tournament, beating CASS and Franco-Cite and losing to L’Horizon in the round robin. In an exciting best-of-5 final, L’Horizon was victorious over MSS 3-0 to claim the NOSSA championship.
The coaches said that both teams played some of their best volleyball of the season. What more could a coach ask for? On top of that they walked away with silver medals across the board! Great season, guys!
A good sport is good for sports.
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