Two boys from Salmon Arm’s Synergy Basketball Club managed to help their team scoop up a silver medal at the B.C. Summer Games, while another three landed their team in fifth place.
The games were held in Nanaimo over the weekend and there were two U13 Thompson-Okanagan teams. Evan Smith, Jackson Mayes and Noah Jansen, who is from Armstrong, played on the red pool team, coached by Aaron Smith, while Alton Neid and Carson de Vries played on the gold pool team coached by Rob Neid.
The games were 3 on 3 and the team in the gold pool went undefeated until the finals, where they were beaten out by the Fraser Valley team by one point. The red pool team managed to come in fifth place.
“The two Okanagan teams were in the top five, and there’s 14 teams in the tournament,” said Neid. “We kind of became a real crowd favourite; we we’re kind of an underdog team and we played with a lot of heart.”
A number of other athletes from Salmon Arm and area also placed well at the games.
Angalena Cross of Sorrento assisted the Thompson-Okanagan girls soccer team in earning a gold medal.
McKenzie Woldring participated on the athletics team and scored 12th in the girls high jump, 13th in the girls long jump and ninth in the triple jump.
Heather Wolfear placed fourth in wrestling and Madison Porteous was right behind her with a fifth-place win.
Andrew Bannister helped lead the Thompson-Okanagan lacrosse team to a third-place victory.
Shayla White played on the Thompson-Okanagan volleyball team, which placed fourth.
Avia LaTosky played on the rugby team that placed third.
Tyler Webster-Locke took home a bronze medal in the boys 100-metre freestyle swimming event. He also came in seventh in the boys 200m freestyle and sixth in 50m freestyle.
Olin Mosher, from Tappen, placed 16 in the boys 1500m freestyle.
Peter McLean, the assistant coach of the rowing team, led his team to a fifth place win in the skills competition.
