Athletes heading to Games

The Summer Olympics may be the toast of the season when it kicks off at the end of the month, but local athletes will have their attention turned to a smaller, but similar competition.

Eighty-five Rocky View athletes will be attending the 2012 Alberta Summer Games as part of Zone 2. The Games will be hosted in Lethbridge, July 26 to 29.

Julie Noyes and Paul Reik, both 14, will be among the athletes. The two will be featured in the Games’ athletic competition. Noyes will compete in the U15 shot put and pentathlon events. It will be the first Games for Noyes, who began running track with the Airdrie Aces Athletics Club only a few months ago. She said her only goal heading into the Games is to set a personal best.

“I’m really excited,” she said. “I’m looking forward to meeting new people. It’s going to be really cool.”

Reik will take part on the U15 200-metre race, the 4x100-metre relay, the medley relay and the 800-metre race. He began training with the Aces last year when the club was first founded and while he has competed at meets across the province, he said the Games would be the biggest yet.

“It’s a really exciting opportunity,” he said. “It sounds like it’ll be a lot of fun and an interesting, bigger competition. I want to do the best that I can and hopefully set some personal bests.”

The four-day event will see athletes from Airdrie, Cochrane, Bragg Creek, Langdon and Irricana competing in everything from swimming and football to BMX racing and lacrosse.

At the 2010 Alberta Summer Games, Zone 2 finished third overall in medal standings with 94 medals, and some of the medal winners will try to retain their titles in Lethbridge. Swimmer Stephanie Churcher of Chestermere won gold in the 400-metre individual medley in 2010 and will swim the race again in Lethbridge, along with five other individual races and three additional relays.

After bringing home six medals from the Games in 2010, Cochrane’s Erik Nusl will compete in Lethbridge in the 4x50-metre free relay, the 4x50-metre medley relay and 4x100-metre medley relay. The Zone 2 boys’ lacrosse team, which is headed up by Rockyview Silvertips’ head coach Gord Henry, is looking to defend their title and gold medal, which it also won in 2010.

For more Summer Games coverage, check out next week’s edition of the Airdrie City View.

Athletics:

Jessie Crossley

Karissa Nolin

Isaiah Richards

Kyle Wegner

Football:

Colton Church

Dawson Drewniak

Deion Holder

Wyatt Jones

Bennett Thomson

Brayden Vandermeer

Quinn Yakiwchuk

Swimming:

Reid Glatz

Kayla Goruk

Zac McLeod

Melia St. Louis

Soccer:

Caroline Batista

James Borden

Tianna Bridal

Jordan Cameron

Zachary Eykelboom

Britney Glowinski

Nicholas Granley

Taran Hardy

Bradey Hensel

Abby Kirk

Alexya McNeill

Prinex Roberts

Ashley Smith

Michael Stewart

Lacrosse:

Michael Benn

Jesse Bootland

Matthew Dyck

Michael Halladay

Myles Moffat

Ethan Murray

Connor Shantz

Barrett Sheen

Basketball:

Cole Albertworth

Michaela Coward

Logan Hymas

Shannon Kirk

Havyn Mills

Kaitlin Quong

BMX:

Mackenzie Cameron

River Peacock

Beach Volleyball:

Jared Lee

Inline Hockey:

Nolan Spadafore – Cochrane

Jason Lieskovsky – Langdon

Softball:

Taylor Barber

Paige Siewert

Jenna Spencer

Baseball:

Kyran Weemaels