Hometown fans had plenty worth celebrating at the BC Summer Games last weekend, especially Sunday, when a handful of Fraser Valley teams captured gold medals on the event’s final day.
Two Fraser Valley (Zone 3) boys rugby squads finished on the podium at South Surrey Athletic Park Sunday, while Zone 3 teams – which includes athletes from White Rock, Langley, Surrey, and Cloverdale, among other cities – also scooped gold medals in boys box and field lacrosse and beach volleyball, while girls teams finished first in rugby, basketball, soccer and softball.
All the events were staged in South Surrey and Cloverdale, which the exception of box lacrossse, which was played at the North Surrey Recreation Centre.
Two of the most interesting finals came on the rugby pitch Sunday – and none was more intriguing that the girls’ championship game, which saw two Fraser Valley teams square off for gold.
The two teams trained as one in the lead-up to the Summer Games, and both were coached by Jodi Cornell, making for a strange final which in the end, was won Fraser Valley 1, 27-5 over the No. 2 squad.
“It’s awkward… normally when I coach on the side, I’m very loud. I’ll point out where my girls need to attack, where the other teams weak points are. But, when my two teams are playing each other I’m just there to encourage with both sides.
“Both teams, we talked to them before (the game). We said ‘this is the same as any other final. We don’t know who’s gonna win, we don’t know what’s gonna happen. We want you to play like you don’t know the team across from you.”
The awkwardness of the final did little to dampen the victors’ moods after the win.
“I’m ecstatic, I’m so happy. We worked so hard for it, every one of us,” said Lauren Kerr, captain of Fraser Valley 1.
In the U14 boys rugby tournament, the two Fraser Valley entries – both coached by Adam Roberts – also squared off, though not in the final game.
The Fraser Valley 1 team rolled to an 8-0 record in the three-day tournament, beating Vancouver Island 12-7 in the final. The Fraser Valley 2 squad, meanwhile, won bronze after going 6-2. The team’s only losses came to Fraser Valley 1 early in the weekend, and to Vancouver Island in semifinals.
“That game actually got a little heated – the guys knew each other so well, and really wanted to beat each other,” said Roberts of the Fraser Valley showdown.
Roberts called the gold medal “a real team win” but singled out a pair of Earl Marriott Secondary students, Wiley Gillette and Michael Smith, for praise.
Smith, Roberts said, “won us two games just on his defence alone.”
The U14 boys baseball team, coached by White Rock-South Surrey Baseball Association coach Jordan Broatch, placed second, losing to Vancouver-Squamish 8-1 in the finals, which were held Sunday at South Surrey Athletic Park.
While team events hogged the spotlight Sunday, Surrey and White Rock athletes fared well in a variety of individual events, too.
In track and field, Friday’s rainy weather couldn’t slow South Surrey’s Jake Hanna at Bear Creek Park.
On the first day of competition, Hanna won gold in the 300-m, and broke the provincial record twice – once during the semifinal heat with a time of 37.35 seconds, and again in the finals, when he crossed the line in 36.09 s.
Hanna added two more gold medals to his total after his record-breaking 300-m run. He also placed first in the 200-m and the 200-m hurdles.
Adding to the Fraser Valley’s track-and-field medal haul was Semiahmoo Secondary’s Chelsea Ribiero, who won gold in the girls 1,500-m steeplechase; Cloverdale’s Stephanie Mernagh won bronze in the 200-m; and Matthew McLean won silver in the boys 100-m.
However, it was Coquitlam track star Chanell Botsis who stole the show, winning three gold medals, while also setting a new provincial record in the javelin with a toss of 43.06 m, shattering the old mark of 41.23.
Botsis was presented the W.R. Bennett Award for Athletic Excellence at Sunday’s closing ceremonies.
Swimmer Justin Howe, 14, of Victoria, had the largest medal haul of the weekend, going home with three golds, three silvers and one bronze.
The BC Summer Games were also highlighted by an appearance from Rick Hansen, who was in town to watch daughter, Rebecca, compete with Zone 4’s beach volleyball team.
“I remember when I was a kid I had a chance to come at the BC Summer Games,” said Hansen. “It was one of the inspirational moments in my athletic career.”
The overall BC Summer Games team title was won by Vancouver Island-Central Coast, with 101 medals. Fraser Valley placed second with 94.
For full results from the Games, visit www.bcgames.org
– with files from Gurpreet Kambo and Ally Ginther
