Sudbury rocked by Island runners
Congratulations to the Manitoulin runners who ran in last weekend’s Sudbury Rocks race weekend. In the 42km marathon Mindemoya’s Stacy Haner had an epic battle with the Sudbury topography to nearly beat her personal best. Five years ago on the very flat, marathon course in Ottawa, Stacy recorded an impressive 3:42:21. This past weekend, traversing Sudbury’s hilly moonscape she was clocked at 3:42:21. Argh! I’m sure she doesn’t need to mull this over but just half a second per kilometer faster over the 42 km would have eclipsed the 21 seconds short of an amazing personal best! This of course was nothing to sneeze at as she not only won her age group she finished in 8th place overall! Way to go Stacy!
In the half marathon, Little Current’s Laurel Leconte also was the best of 30 runners in her division to finish the 21k course in just 1:46! Kicking the 10k distance was Wikwemikong’s old man down the road, Mark Eshkawkogan, who took the bronze medal in his division with a, still peppy, 46 minutes for the distance.
How about 15 year old Ben Haner who put in a training run for track season, with a 19 minute 5k?! His effort was not just impressive on its own merit it was also the 2nd fastest on the day out of 800 plus participants! Ben just missed out on breaking the tape by six seconds. In another epic effort, fellow Mindemoya runner Derek Pichoski has been working on his fitness level for a year and has a brand new profile to show for it. He not only completed the 5k distance, (something that would have surprised even him a couple years ago) he ran it in 30 minutes. Way to go Derek! Hats-off to Ginette Dutrisac who crossed the line with Derek. Congratulations as well to Jacqueline Odjig and Sarah Odjig of Wikwemikong and Melissa Koschok and Derek Koschok of Little Current who also met their own goals with great finishes.
Island Soccer Championships
The annual bout for Manitoulin soccer supremacy took place last Thursday in Mindemoya for the Grade 7/8 title and in Wikwemikong for the junior championships.
On their home field Mindemoya’s CMPS were undefeated and didn’t allow a single goal on their way to the winning the Intermediate “A” division edging out Pontiac by a 1-0 tally. Congratulations to: Coach Lisa Pennie, and players Alayna Cranston, Matthew Redmond, Cole King, Chris Haner, Steffen Barnes, Beth Wesno, Maddy Niven, James Scott, Hunter Cranston, Trinity Leeson and Sean Orford.
In the “B” Division title LCPS was an offensive force scoring more goals than in recent memory to win the title uncontested. Hats off to: Coach April Aelick and players Jonah Nahwegahbow, Kieran Hogge, Elizabeth Wood, Sydney Koehler, Brandon Boyle, Morgan Hall, Patrick Snowden, Connor Bellmore, Jacob Clark, Madison Madahbee and Raine Farquhar.
In the “A” Consolation showdown, Little Current held out over Gore Bay to take home bragging rights. Way to go Zack Kategiannis, Kylie Biederman, Clay Dickson, Tyler Orr, Alyssa Green, Faith Taylor, Adam Goodfellow, Tianna Martin, Jesse Madahbee, Josh Robinson, Eric Varey, AJ Vankesteren and Coach Mark Volpini.
Legion Meet opportunity
Island track and field athletes have a great offer from the Gore Bay Legion Branch 514 to get free entry and registration into the District H Meet coming up at Laurentian University on June 14. It is open to all
Island athletes 17 years and under as of December 31, volunteer registrar Darryl Leighton is hoping to maintain the strong representation from Manitoulin Island again this year. For the last couple of meets the local Branch covered the registration costs for all Island athletes in various events. With meet-day registration not permitted Darryl’s offer will not only save families money but he will make things a lot easier. The deadline to send him information however is Monday, June 2 so please contact him in advance so he can get the necessary forms out to you. Call him at 282-9946 or email: dtleighton@hotmail.com
Throwaholic writes…
The Canadian, under-16 shot-put and discus record-holder Evansville’s Joseph Maxwell has been generous with his vast knowledge. The teen is very methodical in his training and takes videos of all his throws and analyzes every, limb angle, release point and all possible metrics. Joseph recently contributed to the website, Throwaholics.com on an advantage that he recognized during his training. This small advantage he noticed in his analysis, consistently added 5m to his already, massive, 50m discus throw! For a lot of chuckers, a gain of 5m might actually double their toss and Joseph is willing to explain that extending his body to maximum stretch at a certain point of his delivery is giving him a measurable improvement. Good on you Joe!
Active adult
Former 90s Midget Panther Dennis Lewis, now of Orillia, is keeping his ‘panther-like frame’ in top form by either roller-blading, biking or walking every day. Keep up the good work Dennis.
If you catch an active adult, pass on the sighting to the email below!
A good sport is good for sports.
705-377-6018 chipstoquips@gmail.com
