Hat-area athletes help Zone 1 win 30 medals at Alberta Summer Games

By Sean Rooney on July 24, 2018.

srooney@medicinehatnews.com @MHNRooney

On the track and in the pool was where Medicine Hat and area’s athletes had the most success at the Alberta Summer Games in Grande Prairie this past weekend.

Of Zone 1’s 52 medals, 19 came from Hat-area swimmers and another 11 were from Hat-area track and field competitors.

In the pool, Kristin Hollingworth was the most decorated local athlete, winding up with two silver and four bronze. She was second in the 100 metre butterfly (1:12.33) and the 200 freestyle (2:20.28), then third in 100 individual medley (1:16.32), 200 fly (2:48.70), 400 free (4:59.89) and 4×50 metre freestyle relay. Kaitlin Skrove was also on the medal-winning relay team.

Fellow swimmer Berlin Mastel had four medals, including a silver in 50 metre freestyle (28.88), plus bronzes in 100 backstroke (1:12.66), 100 breaststroke (1:19.08) and 50 breast (35.81).

Munro Maxwell won silver in the boys’ 400 freestyle (4:43.76) and added bronze in the 200 individual medley (2:33.85). Parker Maxwell took silver medals in 200 fly (2:27.54) and 100 fly (1:06.08) while adding bronze in 100 medley (1:10.38).

Ashton Scholly also had a four-medal haul, swimming to silver in the 50 metre freestyle (26.95 seconds) and backstroke (31.07). His bronze medals came in 100 free (59.70) and 100 back (1:08.22).

Track was a similar story. Zachary Campbell, Orin May and Irvine’s Gage Reinhart were part of the silver-medal winning 4×100 metre relay for 17-under boys, who crossed the line in 45.66 seconds. They also took bronze with the medley relay team which finished in 3:41.85 and also included Joshua Suelzle.

Reinhart picked up his own silver in the 300 metre hurdles in 42.35 seconds). Suelzle medalled in each of the four events he competed in, including discus (silver, 40.92 metres), javelin (silver, 43.88) and shot put (silver, 12.65 metres).

In 15-under girls, Cypress County’s Justina Renke won silver in javelin, throwing the spear 29.50 metres. Jaylaina Callan won bronze in 15-under girls shot put, throwing the shot 9.62 metres.

Tilley’s Jayel Dovichak had a great showing in 15-under girls track and field, winning two silver medals and adding a bronze. Dovichak was second in high jump (1.48 metres) and the 300 metre sprint (43.59 seconds) while placing third in 80 metre hurdles (12.70 seconds).

All of those medals still didn’t get Zone 1 far in the overall standings, however. Zone 1 won seven gold, 22 silver and 23 bronze medals to finish seventh in the medal standings, beating out Zone 8 (Northeast). Zone 3 (Calgary) topped the standings with 87 gold, 64 silver and 40 bronze for a total of 191.

Of the 53 Medicine Hat athletes who went to Grande Prairie, most were part of team sports. The girls softball team that featured 11 girls from Medicine Hat’s Thunder wound up fifth, beating Zone 6 by a 4-3 score to wind up their weekend.

The boys soccer team wound up sixth, while the girls team was fifth. Plenty of Hat athletes were on the seventh-place football team. The baseball team including Cole Rath, Kayden Hleucks and Ben Van der sloot was fourth, dropping a 6-5 decision to Zone 7 in the bronze medal game. Matthew Macpherson helped the lacrosse team to a sixth-place result and Bubu Benjamin and the boys basketball team finished seventh.

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