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Year in Review — Swimmer joins B.C's best

Swimmer joins B.C's best, Multisport festival coming to Penticton and more

Hard work by KISU’s Jaren Lefranc resulted in his selection to Team BC in swimming for the Western Canada Summer Games.

“It was pretty awesome. I didn’t swim the best at the selection meets,” said LeFranc, who will be joined by his coach Tina Hoeben. “It was a nice surprise. I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it.”

While in Wood Buffalo, near Fort McMurray, Alta., Aug. 7-16, LeFranc set personal best times in all his events, placing fourth in the 100- and 200-metre breast stroke and helped Team BC earn silver in the 4x50-m medley relay.

“Pretty good considering the guys who I’m going up against are the best in Western Canada,” said LeFranc. “Even fourth place is pretty good, especially because the top four were probably miles ahead of the rest of the field.”

Multisport festival coming

Penticton’s sports event calendar just got busier for the summer of 2017.

The Peach City will be the home of four International Triathlon Union (ITU) world championships. Penticton was selected by the ITU executive board to host the first Multisport World Championships Festival. The festival will feature a duathlon, long distance triathlon, aquathlon and cross triathlon championship races spanning 10 days.

“We’re excited. The eyes of the triathlon world are going to be on Penticton,” said Challenge Penticton co-race director Michael Brown, who submitted a bid letter with Kevin Cutjar, who sold his share of the event to Brown.

Pinnacles peak at provincials

All that glitters was gold for the Penticton Pinnacles U18 boys at the BC Soccer Youth Provincial B Cup championships in Penticton.

On the last day, July 12, at Kings Park the Pinnacles blanked Kelowna United FC 3-0 in the final game behind the shutout goalkeeping of Brady Van Ryswyk.

The Pinnacles won all four games in the tournament ,which began July 9, allowing only two goals and scoring 18 against opponents.

“The boys should be very proud of themselves from where they’ve come from to where they are now,” said assistant coach Pat Van Ryswyk after the game. “Our guys stuck to the systems that we implemented, the wingers tuck in and they don’t have to come back so far and we played football. We play a disciplined 4-3-3 system, possession is our big thing, that’s the name of the game, we’ve got some speed, we’ve got some goalscoring.”

Medal winners

In Penticton, the U18 girls earned a bronze with a 2-0 victory over Williams Lake Storm on the final day.

The girls finished second in the division play with a win and a two ties and blanked the Williams Lake Storm 2-0 to earn the bronze medal. In 100 Mile House it was the U14 boys picking up a silver, losing 3-1 in the championship match to the Central City Breakers of Surrey who went undefeated in the tournament. Penticton finished first in their division with a two-win, one-tie record.

Golden finish to season

It was a golden finish to the season for the Penticton Heat bantam C lacrosse team.

The Heat are provincial champions after defeating Vanderhoof 5-3.

“It all came together on the last day. It was an absolute surprise,” said Heat coach Dan MacDonald.

After finishing the Thompson Okanagan Minor Box Lacrosse season with seven wins in 12 games, MacDonald said winning a championship made a good season better. Along with playing system’s well, the Heat received strong goaltending from Rowan Brown.

“The goalie was standing on his head,” said MacDonald. “He kept us in the game that’s for sure.”

Scoring for the Heat were Logan Cote with two goals, Rhys MacDonald, Jacob Stewart and Ethan Konno.

Games experience great

Six Penticton athletes walked through the arrivals door at Penticton Airport to a loud reception.

Family members and volunteers from Special Olympics B.C. awaited their arrival from the Special Olympics World Games in Los Angeles held July 25 to Aug. 2.

Jake Huff, Chad Conlon, Lynden Hicks, Margaret Burnell, Kevin Ellis and Avery Newton wore smiles as bright as the medals they won.

“I feel really happy that they came to support us,” said Huff, donning his Team Canada outfit.

“They were very proud of us. I’m very proud of everybody.”

Newton had four medals (two gold, two silver) hanging from her neck. She set a personal best time in the 100 metre freestyle swim, in which she earned a silver medal.

“I had butterflies in my stomach the entire time,” she said. “I was just happy. I didn’t even know that I was going to bring medals home.”

Burnell was Canada’s eldest member at 69 and part of the first team to represent Canada in bocce at the World Games.

She returned with two bronze medals in team play and doubles with Ellis.

“I’m so happy I got those,” said Burnell. “We just had a good time.”

Huff was the lone bowler and captured gold in the team event, silver in singles and placed fourth, receiving a ribbon, in doubles action. Amanda Schleppe won a gold medal in the 50-m backstroke, silver in the 4x50-m freestyle relay with Newton and bronze in the 50-m breast stroke. The Games had 7,000 athletes competing from 177 countries. Overall, Canada won 144 medals, 71 gold, 47 silver and 26 bronze.

Record-setting effort

Australia’s Kate Belivaqua made history at Summerland’s Memorial Park in August.

She became the first woman to win Ultra520K Canada.

Belivaqua came into the final leg of the grueling, three-day, 520-kilometre race in second place, 26 minutes behind Dustin Gilbert. She finished the 84.4-km run in seven hours and 32 minutes, nearly 50 minutes ahead of Gilbert. That record was the final one of her five over the weekend. On day one, she completed the 10-km swim in 2:27:57. Her second was for total time on day 1 at 7:26:38. Her day 2 record was her total time of 16:44:21.

Her fourth was the total time of 24:16:27. After crossing the finish line behind Spain’s Juan Arroyo (finished the run in 7:17:32), the male winner who clocked a total of 24:42:02, Belivaqua had to wait nearly 10 minutes to see if Gilbert would come in on time to claim the overall victory.

“That’s a little bit stressful, but no, for me my goal was to have a good run. I had just personal things I wanted to achieve,” said Belivaqua, a three-time Ironman champion. “If I got the overall victory, that was just a bonus. That wasn’t what I was here for. I was here just to experience the whole Ultra520K.”

On Day 2, Belivaqua completed the 275.8- km bike in 9:17:43. Gilbert clocked the fastest bike time in 8:55:33, while Bautista clocked in at 9:12:14.

 

National silver lining

Winning a Canadian box lacrosse championship slipped by Finn Halladay and Team B.C.

The peewee squad lost to Ontario 11-2 in the Warriors Pee Wee Boys Canadian Lacrosse championship on Aug. 9. B.C. reached the final in Whitby, Ont. after exacting revenge on Team Alberta 5-2. In the round robin, Alberta handed B.C. a 6-2 loss leaving Halladay’s team with five wins and two losses.

“They were a very skilled team. A couple of kids are from Toronto that were very good,” said Halladay.

Halladay, the only Okanagan player on B.C., was still happy to return home with a medal in his nationals debut. He was second in team scoring with nine goals and 15 points.

He is the McMahon

Victoria’s Brent McMahon is the new Valley First Challenge Penticton half-distance champion.

McMahon crossed the finish line at Okanagan Lake Park completing the 1.9-kilometre swim, 90- km bike and 21.1-km run in three hours, 50 minutes and 38 seconds. McMahon bested the time of last year’s champion, Alistair Eeckman, of 4:40.

“I had goals set for myself. I wanted to go out and I wanted to win this event,” said McMahon, who came out of the swim third in 22:04, then clocked a time of 2:14:08 on the bike and 1:14:28 on the run. “It takes a lot of hard work to do that. There was great Canadians and great international athletes here. They didn’t make it easy on me.”

Jennifer Spieldenner, of Findlay, Ohio, was the women’s half distance champion finishing in 4:25:09. She finished the swim in 23:28, the bike in 2:34:53 and the run in 1:26:38. Spieldenner said it was a hard day. She found the bike and climbs difficult with heavy winds.

“There was a lot of good girls here. It feels really good (to win),” said Spieldenner, who specializes in the half distance. “It was hard, very hard. That was like a grind.”

The hardest part for her was the bike and she said the run was tough mentally. When it comes to winning, she said it’s “the best feeling ever.”

Harlequins are champs

The Penticton Harlequins are Saratoga Cup champs once again.

The Harlequins topped the Kelowna Crows 18-17 on Sept. 13 and coach Ken Simpson said, “it was like everybody was playing probably their best rugby I have seen these guys play.”

“They played hard. The boys all dug down hard,” said Simpson, who helped guide the team to its second championship in four years. “They played with a lot of heart. They supported each other. It was amazing to watch. It was unbelievable how hard they worked.”

McDavid draws large crowds for Young Stars

Connor McDavid was the big draw for the 2015 Young Stars Classic. Tickets sold quickly, while Cyber Club members took advantage of pre-sale opportunities as people lined the entrance of the South Okanagan Events Centre.

“Connor McDavid is the draw this year. Absolutely,” said Vancouver Canucks fan Dave Ashton. “To see a person of that calibre. I’m a hockey fan, always have been. It’s pretty exciting.

As soon as McDavid was picked by the Oilers, Ashton, who buys tickets for the tournament every year, was thinking about getting to see him play in Penticton.

“I have a lot of friends that are Oilers fans. They will be quite envious,” Ashton said. “I can rub that in too.”

Doreen Bruce also buys tickets each year and said it’s exciting to watch the young players.

“This is our opportunity, as opposed to seeing them in the NHL,” she said.

Carla Seddon, director of marketing for Spectra Venue Management, said the crowd is the best they have seen.

“The demand for the tickets has definitely been the highest that we’ve had since we started the tournament in 2010,” said Seddon. “We’re excited. There is a lot of talent coming here. It’s going to be a great tournament this year.”

He helped the event attract a combined attendance of 27,176. However, McDavid only played against the Vancouver Canucks prospects on the first day, which drew the ire of fans.

Silver is just as good

Every time Connor Ramage looks at his framed Team B.C. jersey and silver medal, it will remind him of the 2015 Scotiabank Alumni Cup in Nova Scotia.

It will be a reminder of the Penticton Minor Lacrosse Association product battling with Team B.C. U15 in the field lacrosse national championship. Despite their best efforts, they lost the final 11-7 to Team Ontario on Aug. 30.

“It was great playing in the game. It was a really good experience,” said Ramage. “I felt pretty good about my performance. The team played really well. It was pretty stressful in the game. When they started scoring, it got pretty stressful and intense. The whole game was intense.”

Lawnbowlers golden

Athletes from the Okanagan-Similkameen brought home 112 medals from the 55-plus B.C. Games in North Vancouver, Aug.25-29.

Among those was gold by Penticton’s Jack Byron and Terry O’Riordon in lawn bowling. The pair, who have played together for 10 years, played what Byron said was the best games of their lives during the Games.

“Every team was actually better than us. We played well above our own level,” said Byron, adding they played against former Canadian champions. “We came out on fire.”

Heat too hot to handle

The Penticton Heat under-15 field lacrosse team dominated its way to a second straight Interior Field Lacrosse League championship.

The Heat crushed the Kelowna Kodiaks 27-0 in the semifinal and easily handled the North Okanagan Legends 22-4. Heat coach Dan Chetner said he is satisfied with what they accomplished after winning all 12 league matches.

“It would have been a disappointment not to have won a championship,” said Chetner. “Not just winning for winning sake, but we’ve proven to be the best team in that division over the past two years. If they had not won, it would have meant they didn’t play to their ability.”