Mustangs take NOSSA tennis
Some of the best players in Northern Ontario visited MSS on Thursday to compete in NOSSA Tennis for this school year, including players from Sudbury and North Bay as well as Espanola, Blind River and Elliott Lake. The Mustangs had a strong showing in NSSSA and so had twice the number of entries of any other school. Some strong play then helped them win the day and take home the NOSSA banner for the first time in recent memory. Leading the way was Carly Newlands and Meranda Noble who won the girls doubles category. They will be travelling to York University this weekend to compete at OFSAA Tennis at the National Tennis Centre (host venue of the Rogers Cup!) Joining them will also be Cole Dumond and Harrison Noble in boys’ doubles, Brett Varey and Mackenzie Turner in mixed doubles, both of whom finished second, and Alexa Gordon in girls’ singles who finished third. Taylor Bain and Adiam Gebrekristose in girls doubles and Andrew Smith and Bettina Turner in mixed doubles both finished third as well but they aren’t to move on to OFSAA. A great day for MSS tennis all around. Excellent job Mustangs and good luck down south!
Record results for Mustang track at NSSSA
Also looking for a berth to OFSAA, the Manitoulin Secondary track and field team made great strides to that goal with an amazing effort in Blind River last week. The Mustangs won the championship in convincing fashion, 850 to 633 over perennial favourites, Espanola. The team amassed over 90 top 3 finishes, including 29 firsts. Fifty two qualified to NOSSA, today and tomorrow in the Sault. Bronwyn Cooper (junior girls) and Kennedy Lanktree (senior girls) each had perfect days with three individual wins while Braedan Case, William Scott, Hayley Noel, Connor Croft and Brittany Wall had two firsts each. Competition of course, will be much stiffer this week but the team will try to send as many as they can to OFSAA. Go team, go!
Exciting new race to finish in Little Current
Paddlers Rob Mellan and Mark Gibeault have been busy through this long winter going through the equally long process of getting a new canoe/kayak race sanctioned under the sport’s governing body: OMCKRA. Especially with a race as ambitious as this one there are a myriad of hoops to jump through to get the blessing of the organization’s support. Mellan, a member of the OPP’s Emergency Response Team developed the race in memory of David Dennie, a Blind River OPP officer and fellow ERT member who was killed in an off-duty vehicle collision this past February. Dennie, who was an avid outdoorsman and paddler, will have his name always connected to the event, to be known as ‘The Dennie: Path of the Voyageurs.’
The stage race will be a two day excursion that will start on Friday, August 22 at the marina in Blind River and will travel the roughly 65 km to the marina in Spanish for an overnight campout. On Saturday morning, canoes and kayaks will make their way to Little Current to complete the approximately 130km total distance.
Organizers hope to have a mix of kayaks and canoes and especially the large voyageur canoes that were designed for routes like this. If you are interested in the race but maybe not the two-day experience you can start with the overnighters, Saturday morning in Spanish and finish in Little Current. For complete information check out the www.thedennie.com.
Jacobs inspires
Manitoulin Special Olympians and Central Manitoulin Public School students got a rare and inspirational visit from one of Caranda’s top Olympians. Gold medal winning curler Brad Jacobs has been volunteering with the OPP Torch Run in support of Ontario Special Olympics. Last Thursday, Mr. Jacobs was whisked in from Sault Ste. Marie by OPP officers and joined our local Special Olympians on a tour of Mindemoya. The run, with torch and all went past CMPS where the whole student body joined the run to finish at the local detachment. Mr. Jacobs was very kind and generous with his time and stayed until every single person was able to come up and meet him. He must have signed hundreds of autographs and posed with countless admiring fans.
Mud Run this weekend!
Would you like to support the Special Olympians yourself? This Saturday, the annual Mud Run also known as Boogie Rush will take over Boogie Mountain in Espanola to raise money for Special Olympics, Saturday. The 5K obstacle course looks like a tough/fun one too! With these types of races becoming more and more popular, it is usually the more grueling the better so I’m sure participants will be pleased to know they will have to endure things like: a rope climb, a downhill slide, tires, a spider web, sand bags, an 8 foot wall, a car climb?, etc. Sound like fun? The event is part of the Guardians of the Flame, Endurance Series or look for Boogie Rush on Facebook for more info.
A good sport is good for sports.
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