News
Sports
Weather
Classifieds
Opinions
Obituaries
Special Reports

Home
About Us
FAQ
Links
Advertising

Carstairs Courier
Didsbury Review
Innisfail Province
Mountain View Gazette
Olds Albertan
Sundre Round Up

Commercial Printing
Great West Newspapers

Local athletes helped Zone 2 bring home 94 medals from the 2010 Alberta Summer Games, earning it the Most Improved Zone award.

After six days of competition, the games wrapped up in Peace River Sunday. A dozen area youth competed in athletics, swimming, baseball, rugby, and football.

Swimming
Thirteen year-old Mitchell Ormann brought home the most hardware out of the Olds athletes with a silver medal in the 13 - 14 Male 4x100 medley relay and bronze medals in the 13 - 14 Male 200 backstroke and the 13 - 14 Male 400 IM. He also earned a fifth place finish in the 13 - 14 Male 200 MR.

“The competition was good,” said Ormann, adding he felt good about his performance.

Had it not been for a rule regulating the number of athletes to two from each zone who can move on to finals, Ormann said he would have been shooting for a number of other medals in swimming events.

The 2010 games marked his second provincial showing.

Younger sister Taylor took a fifth place in Female 200 backstroke.

Nathan Swinton represented the Olds Rapids for his final meet at the Alberta Summer games. He tied for gold with Zone 2 teammate Erik Nusl in the 50 Free, clocking a best time of 30.21 seconds. This was also a new provincial ‘A’ time for Swinton. He was also on four relays that placed third, contributing to his total medal count of five. His other best times were in the 200 IM and 400 IM.

Hanah Lutz placed fourth in the 11 - 12 Female 1500 Free and 14th in the 11 - 12 Female 400 Free.

Blayze Bloomfield also earned a fourth place finish for his performance in the 13 - 14 Male 200 MR, a fifth place finish in the 13 - 14 Male 200 MR, and 10th in the 13 -14 Male 400 Free. Fellow Olds Rapids swimmer Victoria Wagstaff also competed.

Athletics
Karleton Moench was the only athletics competitor to medal from Olds. He brought home a bronze after placing third in the U17 Male Octathlon.

“My overall goal was to be competitive. I was,” said Moench.

In each of the events – high jump, long jump, javelin, shot put, two distance runs, and hurdles – the 16-year-old said he was trying for a personal best. It somewhat surprised him when one of those personal bests came during an event that he said isn’t his strongest.

In javelin, Moench threw two and a half metres farther than his former personal best of 32.54. He said the key to his peformance is visualizing.

“I stand there with my eyes closed and go through the motions of the run up and throw.”

And while shot put isn’t typically his strong suit either, Moench said he was throwing farther in that event than he had during his last competition, the Spring Challenge.

Sara Odersky came close to a medal finish in several of her events. She earned a fourth-place finish in both the U17 Female Heptathlon and the U17 femal 4 x 100 metre relay. She placed sixth in U17 Female High Jump.

Rugby
Locals Megan Berlinguette and Taylor Lappage helped their Zone 4 female rugby team finish the games in fourth place.

Baseball/football
Ryan Klinck and Quinn Wiberg helped their Zone 2 team to a sixth-place finish in the baseball tournament.

Zachary Wild played on the zone football team which finished in seventh place.