SHERBROOKE, QC – It’s day two of competition at the 2013 Canada Summer Games and spirits were high with Victoria’s Jon McKay taking bronze in the men’s 800m freestyle event with a time of 8:14.49 – the first medal of these Games for Team BC.
“I’m super excited to be able to start Team BC off well,” said McKay. “I’m really looking forward to the rest of the meet.”
Success in the pool continued with Ladner’s Dalton Boon winning silver with a time of 2:09:18 in men’s para 200/400m freestyle. Justin Chan, (Vancouver), Sterling King (Prince George), Stefan Milosevic (Burnaby) and James Dergousoff (Christina Lake) also swam their way to the podium taking the bronze medal in the men’s 2x400m relay event with a time of 7:34:36.
While it was a disappointing day for the women’s 2x400m relay team as they received a DSQ for a false start, the team’s Head Coach Mike Flegel was pleased with the performances overall.
“I’m really proud of how the team supported each other today, and the performances that resulted from it,” said Head Coach Mike Flegel.
The day’s highlights also included solid performances by BC’s women’s softball, tennis and volleyball teams.
Day two tennis opened with the conclusion of team play against Manitoba. Both the men’s and women’s doubles won their match-ups to complete a 6-0 sweep. Wet weather conditions hindered outdoor play and teams were forced to move the competition indoors. Team BC continued its strong performance, winning all matches to improve their team play record to 3-0. Monday morning will bring the tournament’s biggest challenge for BC when they play Ontario, the numer-one seed in team play. Matches begin at 9:00 am (EST) / 6:00 am (PST) at the Centre Récréatif de Rock Forest and can be viewed on canadagames.tv.
Team BC’s women’s softball team came out strong, defeating Alberta with a final score of 9-1. Pitcher Tori Belton from Langley gave a solid performance and the team had great hitting by Cassandra Dypchey (Surrey), Olivia Hornstein, (Surrey), Emma Entzminger (Victoria) and a big triple hit by Chelsea Jenner (Abbotsford). In their second game later today, the team was defeated by Manitoba with a final score of 3-2, making them 3 and 1 in the Games thus far.
At the Cégep de Sherbrooke, both men’s and women’s volleyball teams proved that they were in it to win it. The men first overpowered Team Newfoundland to a straight sets win (25-7, 25-8, 25-12), and the women cruised by Team Yukon with 25-7, 25-7, 25-6. In early afternoon, BC faced off against what would likely be their toughest challenge during pool play. As one of the favourites for gold, Team Alberta fought hard. Led by, Led by Krista Hogewoning (Delta) – who had an outstanding performance with 17 points – Team BC prevailed in the end, winning the match 3-1.
"I'm really proud of us and how we came together and played as a team,” said Hogewoning. “Our passion and love for each other and the game enabled us to play our style and come out on top.” The women’s next matches are scheduled for Monday, against PEI and Ontario.i
For more information on Team BC, including complete roster of athletes, latest results and week one schedule of events, please visit www.teambc.org. High resolution images are available for download on www.flickr.com.