Heavy medal continues to rain down on Maple Ridge as local athletes celebrated with gold, silver, and bronze medals at the Canada Summer Games in Sherbrooke, Que.
Wrestling
Payten Smith continued her three -year undefeated streak in wrestling with a decisive win over Ontario’s Laura Barr in the female 90-kilogram division.
Smith, the 16-year-old female captain of Team’ B.C., made quick work of Barr, pinning her in under 20 seconds to capture the gold medal. It was Smith’s second win over the Ontario wrestler as she defeated Barr during Team B.C.’s preliminary round match. Smith pinned Rebecca Sparrow of Newfoundland in the semi-final reach the finals. None of Smith’s matches at the Canada Games lasted more than one minute.
On the boy’s side, Cameron Hicks collected his second silver medal of the week thanks to a strong performance in the male 42 kg division.
Hicks won a tightly contested 3-1 decision over Kieran Akhtar of Saskatchewan to move on to the finals. Hicks then dropped a close 3-0 match to Ontario’s Marco Guido Palermo. The final was a repeat of their bout during the team competition, where Hicks dropped a 3-1 decision.
Teammate Cod Osborn picked up his second medal of the games when he defeated Vince Kuilboer of Alberta to capture bronze in the 63kg division.
Osborn narrowly lost out on the chance to fight for gold when he lost a tight 3-1 contest to Lucas Hoffert of Saskatchewan in the semi finals.
Despite the loss, Osborn was able to bounce back after a half hour’s rest to claim the bronze.
Canoe/Kayak
Maple Ridge’s Brian Malfesi won a gold medal Tuesday, Aug. 13 in the men’s K1 1,000 metre event. Malfesi cruised to victory in a time of three minutes and 51.53 seconds, beating his closest competitor by more than one second. The gold is his second of the 2013 games, as Malfesi took home a silver in the men’s K1 500 m event on Monday, Aug. 12.
The 19-year-old Malfesi is a four-time K1 National Champion and had won bronze at the 2009 Canada Summer Games in the men’s K2 200m event.
“It’s really great to kick things off for Team BC at these Games,” said Malfesi, a graduate of Garibaldi and current student at Simon Fraser University.
“Week two is looking good and I hope to continue to represent my team well.”
Baseball
Maple Ridge’s Andre Pelletier and Kyle Ross lead Team B.C. to gold after a resounding 5-0 win over Ontario in Friday’s final.
Team B.C. hammered Ontario’s starting pitcher Alec Miller for five runs in the opening inning and never looked back. Miller was yanked after recording just two outs in the first.
Pelletier went 0-3 in the final game, scoring in the first. Pelletier went 6-21 for a .286 avg. during the tournament, scoring eight runs with three walks and four RBI.
Ross, a left-handed pitcher with the Langley Blaze, lead team B.C. to a 10-0 win over Ontario in his only start during round robin play. He pitched five innings of three-hit baseball. Head coach Brooks McNiven said it is an amazing experience to win a championship at a national level and attributed much of the success on his team’s deep rotation and timely hitting.
“The boys played hard all week and I think we were the best team in the tournament, and we were able to show that in the end, noted McNiven, a former Olympian. “Our pitchers pitched really well all week and the offense was there, so we were able to put those two things together, and it led us to the gold medal.”
B.C. made it to the finals after defeating New Brunswick 7-0 in the semi finals, a battle of the two top teams during preliminary round play.
Softball
On the softball diamond, Maple Ridge’s Jaycee Affeldt and Iris Chow helped propel Team B.C. to gold with a 9-1 drubbing of Manitoba. It is the third consecutive gold medal for B.C. in softball.
B.C. took the long road to final, placing fourth after the preliminary round. However, the team came together to beat the third- ranked Ontario 3-0 in their first playoff game.
The win allowed B.C. ‘s goal of a three-peat alive, facing Quebec in Friday’s semi final.
After a significant rain delay, the Team B.C. rode the strong pitching performance of Affeldt to a 2-1 win over Quebec.
Affeldt held Quebec batters to six hits over seven innings while striking out five for the complete game win.
Quebec jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the 3rd inning before B.C. responded with a pair of runs in the top of the 6th to give Affeldt the lead. She recoded a perfect seventh inning to secure the right to play for gold.
In the finals, Maple Ridge’s Chow went 2-3 with three runs scored as Team B.C. routed Manitoba 9-1.
Chow, who plays at Douglas College, went 9-35 for a .257 avg. She scored 12 runs with three walks. Affeldt’s complete game lowered her ERA to 1.79 over 31.1 innings, including 33 strikeouts.
Head coach coach Gord Collings said he was overjoyed with the way his team responded after going 6-3 in the round robin play.
“They all demonstrated a great deal of tenacity throughout the tournament and I couldn’t be prouder.”