Sabrina Kelly was honoured as the outstanding female wrestler at junior nationals last weekend in Edmonton.
The product of the Lorne Akins Crush junior high wrestling program also won all three of her matches in the 67-kilogram category with the Bears Wrestling Club, the gold medallists in the female team event.
It’s the latest accomplishment for Kelly, who was awarded silver in the 72-kg division at the 2010 Junior Pan-Am Championships in Managua, Nicaragua.
In her first season with the Alberta Pandas, the high school graduate of the Paul Kane Blues won individual gold and team silver at the Canada West finals as well as individual silver and team gold at the CIS championships.
The three-time Provincial Junior Olympics medallist with the Crushers was the 72-kg silver medallist at junior nationals last year.
Kelly is also a versatile forward with St. Albert’s premier women’s rugby team.
Diana Backer of St. Albert skipped her Granite rink to victory at the Dominion Club Championships.
In the A final, Backer defeated Andrea McCutcheon of the Derrick 8-5 Sunday at the Ottewell. A four-ender in five put Backer ahead to stay at 7-4.
Backer also won the A final in 2009.
Backer, third Larissa Belke, second Joanne Delanoy and lead Monique May will now compete at provincials in October at the Crestwood. Nationals are in November in Richmond, B.C.
Meanwhile, the reigning St. Albert club championship rinks skipped by Craig King and Kathy Piper turned in mixed results at Dominions.
In the A semifinal, King was eliminated by Lee Shalapay of Ardrossan 10-7. King, third Jamie King (last rock thrower) second Ralph Killips and fifth man Elson Keown, subbing for the injured Brian Pfeifer, gave up a four-ender in the first end. Playing on tricky ice on the outside sheet, Jamie had one of his rocks pick and Shalapay was quick to capitalize with the hammer.
After a three in seven cut the deficit to one, Shalapay made a slick freeze to King’s shot rock in the back of the four foot around centre line guards. Jamie’s last rock just ticked a guard, otherwise he would have been shot and probably could have stole one to force an extra end.
Shalapay went on to lose the A final 7-3 to Russ LeMessurier of Spruce Grove.
It’s the second year in a row the six-time defending President’s Cup playoff champions from St. Albert finished 2-1 at Dominions. They crushed Mike Simmons of Gibbons 9-1 in four ends and whipped St. Albert’s Trevor Hoover and his Granite rink 9-2 in seven ends for a berth in the A semifinals. Hoover was the top finisher last year.
As for the Piper foursome, the five-time defending President’s Cup champions finished 0-3. All three games were close, but what rattled the 2010 Tournament of Champions winners was the buzzer, which meant the rinks had to finish the end they were on and then one more.
Piper, third Nicole Bellamy, second Alison Howes and lead Laurie Schreiner never did finish a full game. In the first match, the eighth end was actually the extra end, as Lil Grabinsky of the Saville Sports Centre stole the winning point in the 7-6 decision. Piper had a double for the win, but only knocked one rock out, allowing Grabinsky to cap off a comeback that saw her rink give up three in the first end and one in two.
In the next game, Piper lost 6-4 to Brenda Genereux of Leduc. A four ender in six by Genereux to go up 5-4 was the TSN turning point.
The last contest was a 5-3 setback to Elsie Simmons of Gibbons. In the sixth and last end, Piper was sitting four when Simmons made a bing-bang shot that bounced right to the pin behind coverage, which led to a steal of one.
The 40th win of the season for the St. Albert peewee A Mission was the recent Dutchak division final in the Edmonton Minor Hockey Association.
The game winner was scored with 0.4 seconds left in the third period as the Mission prevailed 4-3 against the SWAT Fighting Saints.
The Edmonton minor hockey week champions and Camrose peewee A tournament winners lost only nine games and tied four. They finished the last three months of the season without suffering a league or playoff defeat.
In league play the Mission averaged 4.5 goals per game and sported the lowest goals-against average.
The Misson are Tylor Jans, Brendan Gervais, Evan Haimila, Matthew Waldorf, Mitchell Davis, Zachary Nuttall, Ethan Hunt, Connor Jungkind, Seth Summers, Zachary Marano, Tyler Schnirer, Andrew Barr, Robert Putt, Matthew Engele, Samuel Smith-Ackerl, Christopher Curr, Ryan Marano. Head coach is Tom Curr and assistants are Richard Jungkind, Todd Schnirer and Cameron Nuttall. William Summer is the manager.
