INNISFAIL – Several area athletes and participants brought home medals from the Alberta Winter Games.
Competitors from across the region, including Innisfail, Penhold and Red Deer County, took part in the 2020 Alberta Winter Games in Airdrie from Feb. 14 to 17.
A total of 1,700 competitors participated in 19 sports at the four-day event.
Athletes competed in cross-country skiing, figure skating, artistic gymnastics, volleyball, speed skating, archery, hockey, ringette and artistic swimming.
Innisfail’s Belle Smith and Penhold’s Lilly Howell competed for the Zone 3 female hockey team and finished in second place overall, earning a silver medal.
“It was very exciting. My team was very good. We were all from different communities and we came together very well as a team,” said Smith, noting she learned much from the Winter Games experience.
“I really couldn’t have done it without my Innisfail coaches helping me along the way. My team worked very hard to get to that gold medal game and we did amazing all weekend,” she added.
Innisfail hockey player Emma Brooks competed for Zone 2 and finished in fifth place.
Other Innisfail athletes who competed for Zone 4 included archer Arianna Anderson, who finished fourth in the Cub (12-14) Female Recurve event. Figure skater Presley Busch also finished fourth in the Star 8 Women’s Singles event and cross-country skier Charlie Nelson competed in three U-16 (Juvenile) events including the Male Sprint, Male Classic and the Male Relay, where he placed 14th, 13th and fourth respectively.
Innisfail’s Kari Fox was the director of operations for the Zone 6 female hockey team, which finished in sixth place.
Penhold’s Amanda Kelly also competed for Zone 4 in ringette and finished in fifth place, while Sydney Hollman competed for the Zone 2 female hockey team and finished in fifth.
Red Deer County was also well represented at Airdrie's Winter Games.
Teri Baumgardt was the director of operations for the Zone 7 female hockey team and finished in third place, earning a bronze medal.
Other Red Deer County participants competed for Zone 4 in a variety of events.
Naomi Schmitt competed in cross-country skiing and won two gold medals in two events, including the U-12 (mini-midget) Classic – Female, and the U-12 (mini-midget) Mixed Relay. She also finished in fifth place in the U-12 (mini-midget) Sprint Female.
Mikayla Beever competed in several individual artistic gymnastics events, including bars, beam, floor, vault and all-around, as well as the all-around team event, finishing 32nd place in the all-around event and in eighth place in the all-around team event.
Sam Bender, Avery Laforce and Kolton Rawlusyk brought home silver medals after finishing in second place in men’s volleyball. Hannah Bernier finished in 22nd place in the individual T2T 1-speed skating event and notched sixth place in the team pursuit. Maya Johannson and Abby Watson competed in artistic gymnastics.
Jessica Spruit competed in two T2T 2 (13-14) speed skating events, female individual and female team pursuit, and finished in 12th and fifth places respectively.
Georgia Stevens finished in eighth place in the Juvenile Women’s Singles figure skating event, while Micah Tweedale took second place in artistic swimming, figures event and third place in the duet.
