Weekend Recap - Week 1
The season has officially begun for Thunder Athletics with Cross Country, Golf and Soccer kicking off the first weekend of the year.
Cross Country
CUE hosted the first Running Room Grand Prix of the Cross Country season. Hosted at Goldbar Park, the event saw runners from 10 different schools, as well as runners in an open category.
Highlights for the Blue and Gold include rookie Ashlee Walker finishing second overall in the Women’s 6km run, posting a time of 26:00 (4:20 pace). In terms of team standings, the women’s team finished in 2nd place overall, while the men’s team finished 7th overall.
For the Thunder specifically, the Top 3 times were:
Women’s 6km Run
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Ashlee Walker - 26:00
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Laurel van der Giessen - 29:23
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Jaycee May - 30:07
Men’s 8km Run
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Markus Boland - 31:45
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Elkan Ekhator - 40:22
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Jason Kwong - 41:25
The next Running Room Grand Prix is happening this coming weekend as Northwestern Polytechnic host Grand Prix #2 on Saturday September 14th.
Golf
Thunder golf began their season at Coal Creek Golf Resort for the first event of the season.
The women’s team got off to an impressive start finishing first in the tournament, with Lauryn Psutka placing first individually shooting an 81 on Day 1 and 96 on Day 2. Ella Gifford finished in the top 3 for women’s individually and Ava Stach finished 6th.
The men’s team placed 4th in the tournament, with Hayden Prins and rookie Evan Couch tying for 5th place individually. Rounding out the group, Aaron Menor finished the weekend tied for 18th individually, and Eric Westman as well as Mateo Gallo were both tied for 23rd.
Thunder golf will have another tournament right away, as Portage College hosts the second tournament of the year September 14th-16th.
Soccer
Saturday September 7th vs. Portage College
A smoky day in Sherwood Park postponed the first games of the season vs. the Voyageurs for both the Women’s and Men’s teams. Both home games will be rescheduled for a future date.
Sunday September 8th vs. Keyano College
The smoke and haze lifted by Sunday, just in time for both games vs. the Keyano Huskies. Thunder Women’s soccer came away with their first win of the season, defeating Keyano by a score of 2-1. Vanessa Pietramala got the Thunder’s first goal of the season via a penalty kick in the 39th minute, while Caylie Rich scored the game winning goal for the Thunder in the 70th minute of the game giving the Thunder the edge late. Goalkeeper Madison Kempster was steller in net, stopping 10 shots on goal and earning the Player of the Game nod for her performance.
On the men’s side, the Thunder fell to the Huskies 1-0. The Thunder were backed by stellar goalkeeping from first year keeper Isaiah Maluta, stopping 5 shots in the match. This was a learning experience for most of the group, with 8 of the 17 players who saw the pitch playing in their first ACAC game on Sunday.
Both teams will be back at it this coming weekend as they head to NAIT for a road game on Saturday September 14th and come back to SAP for a home match against The King’s University on Sunday September 15th.