Wiki athlete, experiences OFSSA!
Congratulations to all of our Manitoulin athletes who have worked so hard this season and qualified to compete with the best across Ontario. I have just noticed that I forgot to cover Wiikwemkoong High School students, this track and field season. The small but mighty team, had three grade nine girls participate at NSSSA in Espanola. DeeA Peltier won the Novice High Jump event. She moved on to NOSSA and placed second, and qualified for OFSAA in Toronto. DeeA travelled there to represent Wiikwemkoong High School and had a great experience in her first year of High school. We all look forward to seeing what she can do over the next few years as an athlete!
Marathon Maven!
It is great to see that Stacy Haner is still running strong and is even participating in a slate of races, year after year. A couple of weeks ago, she finished her “umpteenth” marathon at the Ottawa Race weekend. She finished very strong, although needing to gut-out, the last few kilometers!
Her next race to conquer is the half-marathon in Niagara Falls. Incidentally, fellow local runner Christian Kaiser-Fox will also continue on his running journey on June 18 when he lines up for the full-marathon! Best of luck, you guys!
Off Season, began!
I was apparently too wrapped up in track and field news to know that there is still a lot of youth hockey still underway. Kohyn Eshkawkogan is continuing on his hockey path and has recently competed for Draftday North America internationally in Prague and in Nashville.
Although normally a defenseman, Kohyn helped fill in a depleted forward roster in Prague. The team had started out defeating Sweden, then fell to the tournament champion Czech Republic in a competitive game. They then fell to Kazakhstan but rebounded and defeated Slovakia and the Alps in preliminary games. In the quarter finals, they were then eliminated in a tight 2-1 game against Sweden.
Upon returning to North America and a tight turn around, Kohyn once again represented Draftday North America in Nashville, Tennessee. After falling to a strong Connecticut team with Montreal Canadians head coach Marty St. Louis helping out, Kohyn and his team qualified for the sweet-16. Unfortunately they fell to the Minnesota Blades and were eliminated.
To wrap up a very busy and eventful spring, Kohyn and a strictly, Northern Ontario team attended the Draftday Prospects Showcase tournament in Toronto. With another local hockey connection, M’Chigeeng and Manitoulin were well represented with Kohyn and trainer, Jeff Panamick on the team. In addition, Ashton Pitawanakwat, also on the team, has family ties to Wiikwemkoong.
Hosted at the Scotiabank Pond, this event was filled with representatives from various OHL teams, and the 2008 born Northern Ontario team was the talk of the tournament. With a busy Friday, after completing on and off-ice combines, Northern Ontario went on to defeat the Alliance East team . On Saturday, they then downed the Prospects West team quite handily.
In their semifinal, Northern Ontario faced off against a well-stocked Greater Toronto Area (GTA) team and after three, tight-checking periods, the teams were deadlocked at 2-2. After a five minute, 3-on-3 OT, the teams were still deadlocked and the game went to a three player shootout with Northern Ontario coming out on top.
This sent Northern Ontario to the finals against the undefeated, South Central Toronto Area (SCTA) team. Thanks to their strong momentum, Northern Ontario was a well-oiled machine and held the high flying SCTA offence to just two goals with sound, defensive play. With Kohyn contributing the insurance goal and the team potting two more, the six, Northern Ontario goals were more than enough to bring home Northern Ontario’s first Championship title at the top-notch, event.
A good sport is good for sports
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